Interactive chat¶
arcana chat opens a persistent, full-screen REPL with a card-configured agent:
a scrolling transcript sits above a pinned input box and footer, so the prompt
never drifts up the screen. It runs the same agent + session + memory path as
arcana run, just interactively instead of one shot.
Start a session¶
Pass an agent by name or UUID with --agent / -a. Add --no-memory to run
stateless, or --session <uuid> to resume an earlier session — its recent turns
are replayed on screen so you pick up where you left off. The full flag list is
in the CLI reference.
Replies stream in and render as Markdown. Model reasoning wrapped in
<think>…</think> is dimmed rather than shown as raw tags, and inline LaTeX
($…$, \(…\)) is converted to Unicode where it can be.
Slash commands¶
Type / in the input to open the command menu; Tab completes and cycles it.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/help |
list these commands |
/memory |
show what this agent recalls from this session |
/card |
print the resolved card config — temperature, tone, weights |
/switch <name> |
load another agent in a new session |
/retry |
re-run your last message |
/save |
force a session snapshot to disk now |
/clear |
clear the transcript (history is kept) |
/fresh |
start a new session |
/no-memory |
start a new stateless session (memory off) |
/exit |
close the session and quit |
After /switch, Tab also completes agent names.
Keys¶
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Enter |
send the message |
\+Enter, Shift+Enter, Alt+Enter, Ctrl+J |
insert a newline |
↑ / ↓ |
recall input history (kept per agent) |
Ctrl+R |
reverse-search history |
Tab |
open / cycle the slash-command menu |
Ctrl+C |
cancel a streaming reply, or quit when idle |
Ctrl+D |
quit at an empty prompt |
Ctrl+L |
repaint the screen |
Pasting a large block collapses it to a [pasted N lines] placeholder in the
input; the full text is restored when you send the message, so a long paste
doesn't flood the editor.
Memory¶
Like arcana run, chat gives the agent its private memory by default, so it
recalls earlier sessions. /memory shows what's recalled for the current
conversation. Start stateless with --no-memory (or /no-memory mid-session);
/fresh opens a new session with memory back on. See
Memory → Assembling a federation
for how memory is wired.