Pilot Chat Overview

Pilot Chat is the primary way you interact with Agent HQ. It’s a conversational interface where you describe what you need, and Pilot responds with understanding, asks clarifying questions, and creates tasks to accomplish your goals.

How Pilot Chat works

When you send a message, Pilot:

1. Reads your project context — instructions, linked repo, conversation history
2. Understands your request — parses what you’re asking for
3. Responds conversationally — acknowledges the request, asks for clarification if needed
4. Creates tasks — breaks the work into discrete tasks added to the task board
5. Executes autonomously — runs tasks in sandboxed environments

The chat interface

The chat panel appears on the right side of the dashboard when a conversation is active. It includes:

• Message history — your messages and Pilot’s responses
• Streaming responses — watch Pilot think and respond in real time
• Tool invocations — see when Pilot calls tools (code execution, file operations, etc.)
• Reasoning display — for models that support extended thinking (like Claude), you can see Pilot’s chain of thought
• Input area — type messages, attach files, and send

Real-time streaming

Pilot’s responses stream in real time. You’ll see:

• Text responses appearing word by word
• Reasoning/thinking shown in a collapsible section
• Tool calls displayed as expandable cards showing what Pilot is doing
• Step visualization showing the chain of thought as Pilot works through the problem

Contextual suggestions

After Pilot responds, you may see action suggestions — contextual next steps based on the conversation. These help you quickly continue the workflow without typing.

Best practices

• Be specific — “Add a login page with email/password fields, form validation, and a forgot password link” is better than “Add authentication”
• Provide context — Reference files, functions, or patterns Pilot should follow
• Iterate — If the first result isn’t perfect, guide Pilot with feedback
• Use project instructions — Set up project-level instructions for conventions Pilot should always follow