Your First Conversation

This page walks you through starting a conversation in OptimaChat.

Starting a new conversation

1. Open OptimaChat in your browser or desktop app.
2. If you have existing conversations, click New Chat in the sidebar to start a fresh one.
3. Select a model from the dropdown at the top of the conversation area. If only one model is available, it is selected automatically.

Sending a message

Click in the message box at the bottom of the conversation area and type your message. Press Enter to send, or click the send button.

The message box expands automatically as you type longer messages. Responses stream back in real time — you will see the text appear word by word as the model generates it.

Reading the response

The model's reply appears directly below your message. Once the response is complete, the conversation is saved automatically.

If the model is using tools to answer your question, you will see an agent run appear before the final response. This shows the model's thinking process and any tool calls it made. See Thinking and Tool Blocks for more on how these are displayed.

Continuing the conversation

Simply type your next message. The model remembers the full conversation history within the current chat — you can refer back to earlier messages without repeating yourself.

Starting a new topic

If you want to start a completely new topic, click New Chat in the sidebar. This creates a new conversation and gives the model a clean slate with no prior history.

Your previous conversations remain in the sidebar and can be reopened at any time.

Switching models mid-conversation

You can change the model at any point using the model selector. The new model will have access to the full conversation history up to that point.

Note that different models may respond differently to the same context — switching models mid-conversation may produce noticeably different behaviour.