Chat windows

On macOS you can open any chat in its own window, or show two chats side by side in the main window. It’s handy for watching a long run while you work in another chat. On iPad, side by side works in a full-width window.

Open a chat in a window

Do any of these:

• Right-click a chat in the sidebar and choose Open in New Window.
• Double-click a chat in the sidebar.
• ⌘-click a chat in the sidebar.
• Select a chat and choose File → Open Chat in New Window (⌥ ⌘ N).

What’s in the window

The window shows just that chat. It has its own title and subtitle (the chat title, and the agent and model), its own toolbar (model, chat menu and runs panel), and a composer. The draft belongs to the chat, so it’s the same one you’d see for that chat in the main window.

It uses the same Gateway connection as the main window, so it doesn’t open another one.

While a window is open

• The chat stays loaded and live. It isn’t unloaded to save memory.
• Pincer doesn’t show notifications for it while Pincer is active and at least one of its chat windows is visible, even if another window has keyboard focus. A minimized, hidden or fully covered window keeps its chat loaded but allows notifications.
• Opening the window marks the chat as read.

Clicking a subagent, run or chat link inside a chat window opens it in the main window, which comes to the front. See Subagents & runs.

After you relaunch

Chat windows come back when Pincer relaunches, using macOS window restoration. If the chat was deleted, or its Gateway was removed, the window shows Chat unavailable; close it.

Two chats side by side

The main window can show a second chat to the right of the selected one:

• Right-click a chat in the sidebar and choose Open in Split View.
• Or choose View → Split Right (⌥ ⌘ \) to open the chat you visited most recently next to the current one. You can change the shortcut in Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts.

The left chat keeps the window’s title and toolbar. The right chat has a small header with its title and agent, and buttons to Swap Chats, Open in New Window (macOS) and Close Split View (also ⌥ ⌘ \). Drag the divider to resize the two chats; Pincer remembers the split.

Both chats have their own composer, and the right chat stays loaded and live and isn’t notified, just like a chat in its own window. Selecting the right-hand chat in the sidebar moves it to the left, and the chat it replaces moves to the right. Menu commands and links inside either chat act on the left chat. The split also hides on a Mac when the window is too narrow for two chats.

The sidebar marks the chat currently shown in the right pane with a split-view symbol. Its accessibility hint says Shown in right pane. The marker follows the pane in that window and disappears when the pane is hidden or closed.

On iPad, Open in Split View is in a chat’s context menu in the sidebar while the window is wide enough for two chats. The action and an existing split hide when the window is too narrow (for example in Slide Over), then come back when you widen it.

On macOS, a detached chat window adds Chat window to its native window title. This distinguishes it from the same chat in the main window’s Window menu and Mission Control. The main window and iOS chat headers keep their existing titles.

On macOS, File → Open Chat in New Window (⌥⌘N) targets the front chat window’s chat. In the main window it follows the active split pane. A removed Gateway or deleted chat cannot redirect the command to a different main-window chat.