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A chat is one conversation with an agent inside a session. You can run several chats inside the same session, each on a different task.

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Multiple chats per session

A typical session has more than one chat going at once. For example:
  • One chat drafting outreach for an account
  • Another chat researching a competitor
  • A third chat summarizing yesterday’s meeting
All three chats work in the same sandbox. They can all read and write to the same files. But each chat has its own conversation history, so the agent doesn’t get confused mixing tasks. You see what each chat did when you review the session before saving back.

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A different agent per chat

You pick the agent per chat. Inside one session, you can have one chat running Claude Code and another running Codex, Gemini, Mistral Vibe, or Palette’s own agent. Why this matters:
  • Different agents handle different tasks better
  • Switching agents in a single chat would lose conversation context, but starting a new chat with a different agent keeps each one clean
  • The leading model keeps changing, so being able to mix is useful
You can also switch the model inside the same agent (e.g., a faster model for quick edits, a stronger model for deeper reasoning).

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@-mentions

Type @ in a chat to point the agent at something specific: a file, a folder, or any added reference. This is useful when:
  • The workspace is big and you want to focus the agent on something specific
  • You want the agent to read a particular file before answering
  • You’re referring to something the agent might otherwise miss
The agent always has access to the whole workspace. @ is how you point at the part that matters right now. The same syntax works for references, the folders you’ve added from outside the workspace.

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Chats share the sandbox, not the conversation

This is the key thing to understand:
  • Every chat in a session writes to the same sandboxed workspace
  • But each chat has its own conversation history
So if one chat drafts a doc and another chat edits it, they’re both working on the same file in the sandbox. But neither chat sees the other chat’s conversation. Each is having its own conversation with the agent. When you save the session back, all the changes from all the chats go together.

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Per-chat permissions

Permission controls depend on the agent you choose. Palette only shows the modes that agent supports:
  • Palette and Claude Code have a folder-sandbox toggle.
  • Codex offers read-only, workspace-write, and danger-full-access modes.
  • Gemini and Mistral use their own agent modes.
Use the narrowest mode that fits the task. Broader access can let an agent reach files or tools outside the workspace, subject to the agent’s own permission model and macOS permissions.

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Auto-accept edits

By default, each edit the agent makes is shown so you can read it as it happens. Flip on Auto-accept edits to let the agent run without surfacing each one. The changes still land in your session sandbox, and you still review them all before saving back. The toggle just removes the per-edit interruption while the agent is working. Good for long-running tasks you trust. Off by default.

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Queuing messages

You don’t have to wait for the agent to finish a reply before sending the next message. Anything you type while the agent is working gets queued and runs in order, as soon as the agent is free. Useful when a follow-up idea hits you mid-thought, or when you want to line up several steps in a row.

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Previewing HTML outputs

Agents sometimes produce HTML: a landing page mockup, a prototype, a styled report. Any HTML file in your workspace previews in the right-side panel, the same way markdown files do. You can also open it in your browser. This is one of the best ways to share AI-generated work with humans.

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When to start a new chat

Start a new chat when:
  • You’re switching to a different task in the same session
  • You want a clean conversation context
  • You want to use a different agent or model for the next thing
Keep going in the same chat when:
  • You’re iterating on the same piece of work
  • The history of the conversation is useful to keep
  • You want the agent to remember what you said earlier

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Next

  • Sessions, how chats fit into a session
  • References, pulling in folders outside your workspace
  • Agents, choosing your agent per chat