Sending messages

Sending messages

The composer at the bottom of the chat is a multi-line input with support for Markdown, fenced code blocks, and @ mentions. Ptah streams the response token-by-token as soon as the provider starts producing output.

Composing a prompt

• Enter sends the message.
• Shift + Enter inserts a newline.
• Ctrl/Cmd + Enter also sends — useful when you want to use Enter for newlines exclusively.
• Paste images, files, or folders directly into the composer. Files are attached as context; images are sent inline to providers that support vision.

Tip

Use fenced code blocks (triple backticks) when pasting snippets. Ptah preserves language hints and syntax-highlights them in the transcript.

Streaming responses

Responses stream in real time. You will see:

1. Thinking blocks (for reasoning-capable models like Claude Sonnet/Opus and GPT-5 family) render as collapsed cards at the top of the response.
2. Tool calls render as inline cards with the tool name, arguments, and result.
3. Assistant text streams below, with Markdown rendered progressively.

Sub-agents spawned during the turn appear in the Execution Tree on the right.

Stopping a response

Click Stop (or press Esc) to abort the current turn. Ptah:

• Cancels the in-flight provider request.
• Cleans up any pending tool calls so you don’t end up with orphaned tool_use blocks on the next turn.
• Preserves partial output — you keep whatever the model produced before you stopped.

Caution

If you abort while a sub-agent is running, the sub-agent is asked to wrap up cleanly before the parent turn ends. This can take a second or two. Hitting Stop a second time forces immediate termination.

Resuming a conversation

Every message you send is checkpointed. Closing and reopening Ptah restores the full transcript, including the Execution Tree. Use New chat to start a fresh session, or Fork on any assistant message to branch the conversation from that point.