Chatting with an agent

The composer is where most of the work happens. Type, send, watch. What follows is the parts that aren’t obvious.

Mentioning things with @

Type @ to pull something into the conversation explicitly. You can reference:

• Files in the space’s checkout, by fuzzy name.
• Context docs from the project’s context library.
• Designs, so the agent knows which canvas you’re looking at.

Mentioning is a way to be precise. The agent can find files on its own, but saying which one saves it a search and saves you a wrong guess.

You can also paste or drop images straight into the composer — screenshots of a bug, a design, a stack trace.

Slash commands

Type / for the command menu. Tab fills a command in without sending, so you can add arguments.

Commands come from three places:

• Your own, as Markdown files. Astra scans ~/.claude/commands and ~/.codex/prompts for user commands, and .claude/commands inside the project for ones committed alongside the code. Project commands win over personal ones with the same name.
• The agent’s own built-in and plugin commands, which show up alongside yours.
• Astra’s, currently just /clear, which resets the conversation in place.

Because project commands live in the repo, a team’s shared prompts travel with the code.

Modes and models, per tab

The controls under the composer set the mode and model for this tab. Change them mid-conversation as the work changes shape — explore in Ask, agree on an approach in Plan, then switch to Build.

Sending before a space is ready

If you create a worktree space and send a message while it’s still provisioning, the message is held and goes out the moment the checkout is ready. You don’t have to wait for the dependency install to finish before saying what you want.

Drafts, interrupting and clearing

Unsent text is saved per tab, so switching away and back doesn’t lose it. You can interrupt a running turn at any point — the conversation keeps everything up to that moment. /clear wipes a conversation’s history while keeping the tab, which is the right move when a chat has drifted or the context ring is full.

Rewinding

When a turn goes wrong, you don’t have to argue with it. Astra can fork the conversation at any earlier message and continue from there, dropping everything after that point.

Fork into a new tab to keep both attempts side by side, or into a new space if the second attempt deserves its own branch. See Running agents in parallel.

Naming

Astra names spaces from the first message and writes a one-line summary to go with it — that’s the title and hover text in the sidebar. You can rename any space by hand, and turn auto-naming off in Settings › General › Chats.