Chat Branching
Chat Branching lets you start a new thread from any point in an ongoing conversation while keeping all the context that came before it. Instead of losing your place or starting from scratch, you can fork off at any message and take the conversation in a completely different direction, all within the same chat session. Every agent response includes a small set of controls:
Copy, Branch, feedback (thumbs up/down), and Read Aloud.
The Branch control preserves everything up to the message you branch from, removes everything after it, and gives you a clean new chat to continue in.
1. How Branching Works
- Branch from any message
- Each response in your chat has a Branch control. Click it on the message where you want to split.
- The new branch opens up in a new tab.
- Context is preserved
- Everything from the start of the conversation up to that message is kept intact.
- The agent still remembers the full history including the prior prompts, answers, and any files or context built along the way.
- Everything after is removed
- The messages that came after the branch point are cleared from the new thread.
- You're no longer carrying forward the direction the conversation was heading; you get a fresh start from that exact point.
- Continue with a new task
- From the branch point, you can begin working on something entirely different — the original conversation remains your shared starting context, and the new thread is independent from here on.
2. Why Use Chat Branching
- Run two tasks from one context
- If you've built up useful context in a conversation and want to use it for two different purposes, branch off after the first task and start the second from the same point. Each thread carries the same foundation without you having to repeat yourself.
- Avoid losing your place
- Instead of starting a new chat and re-explaining everything, branching keeps the history you've already established. You never have to rebuild the context that already exists.
- Experiment without derailing
- Try a different approach, a different question, or a different output from the same starting point. If it doesn't work out, the original thread is unaffected, the branch is its own path.
Tips & Recommendations
- Use branching when you want to explore a second path without losing the conversation you've already built.
- Branch early and often. It's cheaper to fork at a clean point than to untangle a long thread later.
- Remember that the original thread is untouched: branching creates a new path, it doesn't modify the conversation you branched from.