| layout | page |
|---|---|
| title | Chat |
| description | Chat with models, run agents, generate media, and trigger workflows. |
Chat is the always-on chat surface inside NodeTool. It talks to any provider, runs tools, kicks off agents, generates images, video, and speech, and triggers your saved workflows — all from one composer.
- 20+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, …)
- One composer for chat, image, video, and speech generation
- Tools: web search, files, code execution, HTTP, and more
- Every turn runs the agent loop — the assistant plans and calls tools on its own as a task needs it
- Permission modes (Plan / Default / Auto) set how much the agent may do without asking
- Run saved workflows from chat
- Multiple threads, persistent history
- Standalone tray window
Persistent WebSocket connection — reconnects after reloads.
- From the App: Click Chat in the navigation menu
- Standalone Window: Click the NodeTool system tray icon and select Chat for a dedicated, focused window
Click the model chip in the composer to open the model picker. Available models depend on your configured providers:
- Cloud models -- OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini (requires API keys)
- Local models -- Ollama, LM Studio models (requires local installation)
Configure providers in Settings > Providers. See Models & Providers.
The same composer generates more than text. Click the mode chip to switch between:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Chat | Talk to the model, run tools, and drive agents |
| Generate Images | Text-to-image with your chosen image model |
| Edit Images | Image-to-image edits on a dropped image |
| Generate Videos | Text-to-video |
| Animate Image | Turn a still image into a clip |
| Generate Speech | Text-to-speech with a voice picker |
| Pi Agent | The workspace-aware agent that works over your files |
Each mode swaps in its own controls — resolution, aspect ratio, duration, voice — and attaches them to the message so the server routes to the right provider call.
Type @ in the composer to reference things by name instead of hunting for
them:
- Entities — characters, locations, styles, and props from your entity library appear first. Picking one inlines its name into the message and attaches its reference image, so generations stay consistent with the entity's canonical look.
- Assets — recent and saved library files. Picking one attaches it to the message like a drag from the asset library.
The same picker works inside the workflow editor's Prompt node, where a picked entity becomes a chip that expands to its descriptor and reference image at generation time.
Chat organizes conversations into threads:
- Create threads -- Click the New Chat button to start a fresh conversation
- Switch threads -- Use the sidebar to navigate between conversations
- Delete threads -- Remove conversations you no longer need
- Message history -- Scroll through past messages with cursor-based pagination
- Message caching -- Recent messages are cached locally for fast loading
Each thread keeps its own model, permission mode, and history.
Every turn in Chat runs the same agent loop — there's no separate mode to turn on. The assistant decides for itself, per request, whether to break a task into steps, select tools, and execute a multi-step plan, or just answer directly.
- Planning -- The agent analyzes your request and, when the task warrants it, creates a plan with ordered steps
- Tool selection -- For each step, the agent chooses from the available tools
- Execution -- Steps run in sequence, with results feeding the next step
- Adaptation -- The agent adjusts its plan based on intermediate results
- Reporting -- Progress, tool calls, and reasoning stream in real time
The permission chip sets how far the agent may act on its own. It's per-thread, so a scratch thread can run wide open while a production one stays cautious:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Plan | Read and propose only. No actions taken. |
| Default | Reads run automatically; actions ask first. |
| Auto | Everything runs, no prompts. |
When a request calls for it, the assistant can:
| Capability | Examples |
|---|---|
| Web research | Search the web, browse pages, extract content |
| File operations | Read, write, and organize files in your workspace |
| Code execution | Run JavaScript in a sandboxed environment |
| Data analysis | Perform calculations, query vector databases |
| Document processing | Extract text from PDFs, process emails |
| Asset management | Create, organize, and index assets |
| HTTP requests | Call external APIs and process responses |
| Workflow execution | Run saved NodeTool workflows with custom inputs |
As the agent runs, the thread shows the task plan, each step's status as it starts, completes, or fails, the tools it calls and their results, and — on models that support it — its reasoning.
You can ask the agent to run a saved workflow as part of a turn: it calls the workflow with your inputs and streams the results back into the chat. You can also ask it to build or modify workflows — it uses workspace tools to write the workflow configuration for you.
Save a workflow in the workflow editor first, then reference it from chat.
Inside the editor the same agent is one panel over, with the open graph as its subject — ask it to add a node, rewire a connection, or explain what a branch does.
Chat agents have access to these tools:
| Tool Category | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Browser | Navigate web pages, extract content, take screenshots |
| Search | Web search via multiple search providers |
| Filesystem | Read/write files, list directories, manage workspace |
| Code | Execute JavaScript in a sandboxed environment |
| Calculator | Perform mathematical calculations |
| HTTP | Make HTTP requests to external APIs |
| Extract text and data from PDF documents | |
| Read and process email messages | |
| Assets | Upload, organize, and manage NodeTool assets |
| Vectors | Query and manage vector database collections |
| Interact with Google APIs (search, drive, etc.) | |
| Workspace | Manage NodeTool workspace settings and files |
NodeTool supports MCP for connecting to external tool servers, so you can integrate custom tools and services beyond the built-in set. See the MCP documentation for available MCP servers.
Access chat in a focused, dedicated window outside the main app:
- Click the NodeTool icon in your system tray
- Select Chat from the menu
- A new window opens with just the chat interface
The standalone window is useful for:
- Quick questions without switching to the full app
- Running agents in the background while doing other work
- Using chat as a general-purpose AI assistant
- Chat & Agents -- Agent CLI and API integration
- Chat API -- Programmatic access for running chats
- Chat CLI -- Command-line chat interface
- Agent CLI -- Run autonomous agents from the terminal
- Models & Providers -- Configure AI providers
- Cookbook -- Agent workflow patterns