Chat

Conversations in Insulin support streaming responses, tool execution, plan approvals, model selection, attachments, memory, and cross-surface threads.

Conversations

Each conversation is a multi-turn thread between you and an agent. Conversations are persisted automatically and appear in the sidebar for easy access. You can have multiple conversations open and switch between them.

Each agent or channel view has a tab bar. Solo agent chats show Messages, Files, and Jobs tabs; channels show Messages and Files only (channels have no Jobs tab). The Files tab lists the attachments in the thread, and the Jobs tab surfaces the agent’s scheduled and on-demand jobs.

When you open a fresh solo chat, the empty state shows the agent’s welcome message and a set of clickable conversation-starter buttons — click one to begin without typing.

Insulin also supports thread events through a live stream. This lets the UI update while an agent is running, while a channel is active, or while a paused run is waiting for an approval.

Message Types

• User messages — Your inputs, including text, file references, and images.
• Assistant messages — Responses from the agent, streamed in real time as they are generated.
• System messages — Status updates, such as when an agent is switched or a tool completes execution.

The Composer

The composer is the input bar at the bottom of the conversation. It holds the controls for everything you send:

• Text with @mentions and /slash commands — Type your message; @ and / open inline pickers (see below).
• Mic / voice — Dictate a message instead of typing. The button shows a live elapsed timer while recording; stop to insert the transcribed text.
• Attach (paperclip) — Add files for the agent to read. You can also drag and drop files onto the composer or paste them.
• Thinking toggle — The Brain button turns extended thinking on or off for the session.
• Send / Stop — Send your message, or stop a response that is still streaming.

File Attachments

Attach files by clicking the paperclip, dragging them onto the composer, or pasting them. Files upload before the message is sent and appear as attachment chips you can remove before sending.

Before sending, each attachment shows as a chip you can remove. Attachments become viewable once the message is sent (see Attachments in a Thread).

Slash Commands

Type / at the start of the composer to see the commands available for the current agent. The list includes the agent’s built-in skills (for example, /skill-creator) plus any skills you have enabled, each slugified from its name. Selecting a command inserts it into your message.

One command is built in everywhere: /clear starts a fresh chat for the current agent or channel (see Resetting a Conversation).

@Mentions

Type @ to mention a participant. In a channel, this addresses a specific agent so it answers your message. Clicking an @agent mention in a message switches you to that agent’s solo chat.

Model Selection

Insulin selects the model for you — there is no per-conversation model picker. Each agent runs on the models available to it and fails over automatically: if a model call fails — a provider outage, a usage limit, or a rejected key — the turn retries on your next connected provider, so a single provider problem doesn’t stall the conversation.

Which models an agent can draw on depends on its ownership:

• The built-in Insulin assistant and Personal (only-you) agents run on your connected providers only — the models from the LLM providers you’ve connected under Settings → Integrations (bring-your-own-key). If you haven’t connected a provider yet, Insulin can’t run and prompts you to connect one first.
• Organization agents can additionally fall back to a Suger-hosted model, so an organization keeps a working model even before it connects its own provider.

See Agents for how an agent’s ownership and its configured Default model determine which models it uses.

Streaming Responses

Agent responses stream token by token as they are generated. You can read the response as it appears without waiting for the full message to complete.

Extended Thinking

When extended thinking is enabled, the agent shows its reasoning process before delivering a final answer. The thinking steps appear in a collapsible section above the response. This helps you understand the agent’s logic and verify its approach on complex tasks.

Toggle thinking on or off with the Brain button in the composer. The setting applies to the session and is remembered in your browser.

Tool Calls

Agents can execute tools — external actions like querying data, calling APIs, or running code. When a tool is invoked during a conversation, you see:

• Running — The tool call is in progress, with a spinner and the tool name displayed.
• Success — The tool completed and its output is shown inline.
• Error — The tool failed, with the error message displayed.

Tool call details are expandable so you can inspect inputs and outputs.

Plan Approvals

For multi-step tasks, an agent may present a plan before executing. The plan lists the steps the agent intends to take. You can:

• Approve the plan to let the agent proceed
• Reject or modify the plan before execution

This gives you control over complex workflows before any actions are taken.

Tool Approvals

Some tool calls require explicit approval before execution. When an agent wants to perform a sensitive action (such as modifying data), it pauses and asks for your confirmation. You can approve or deny individual tool calls.

Plan Progress

When an agent executes a multi-step plan, a progress tracker shows the status of each step:

The progress tracker updates in real time as the agent works through the plan.

Memory

Insulin maintains memory across conversations:

• Short-term memory — Context from the current conversation, including earlier messages and tool results.
• Long-term memory — Persistent knowledge the agent retains across conversations, such as your preferences, decisions, and recurring instructions. Long-term memories are categorized as fact, preference, decision, context, or learned.

Memory recall happens automatically — when the agent surfaces relevant past context, you see a memory recall indicator showing the number of memories retrieved and their content. Memory confidence decays over time, so older memories that are no longer reinforced gradually become less prominent.

You can also manage long-term memory directly: review the stored memories, delete individual ones, or clear them all in bulk.

Connection Status

The chat interface shows a Connecting… banner while it establishes a connection to the AI service. Once connected, streaming is active and the agent can respond.

If the connection drops briefly, the client reconnects on its own in the background — no banner is shown and no action is needed on your part.

Sub-Threads

Within a conversation, you can branch into sub-threads to explore a topic without disrupting the main conversation flow. Sub-threads appear as nested discussions tied to a specific message.

You can rename a sub-thread, or ask Insulin to regenerate its title from the conversation. Renaming and title regeneration are available to the sub-thread’s owner.

Attachments in a Thread

Files you attach in the composer are uploaded and shown as attachment chips before you send. Once sent, they belong to the thread and appear in its Files tab, where they are listed and can be downloaded. Click an attachment on a sent message to open it in the Preview app — PDFs, images, and video render there.

Quick Replies

Agents may offer quick reply suggestions — pre-written response options you can click instead of typing. These appear as buttons below the agent’s message and are useful for common follow-up actions.

Draft Preservation

If you start typing a message and navigate away from the conversation, your draft is preserved. When you return, your unsent message is restored in the composer. Your scroll position is preserved the same way, per conversation.

Message Pagination

Long conversations load messages incrementally. As you scroll toward the top, earlier messages load automatically. When you scroll away from the bottom of the conversation, a floating jump to latest button appears so you can return to the newest message in one click.

Slack and Teams

When Slack or Microsoft Teams is connected for your organization, Insulin can receive messages from those surfaces and mirror agent replies back to the same conversation context. Slack and Teams are personal DM bots for the built-in Insulin assistant — you chat with the assistant one-on-one, not in a shared channel. The web, Slack, and Teams DM surfaces share the same underlying Insulin thread, so work can continue across tools. (For multi-agent group discussions inside Insulin, see Channels.)

Resetting a Conversation

To start over with a clean slate, send the /clear command in the composer. This starts a fresh chat for the current agent or channel context. Your previous messages remain in their own thread — /clear simply begins a new conversation.