One Thinky for everything you have open
Thinky is the workspace's assistant. Its panel is titled Thinky in and the workspace's name, and you open it from View > Thinky. This page explains how its conversations work, how to see what it used to answer you, how to point it at a node or a tool, and where to find a change it proposed.
One conversation for the workspace
You have one conversation with Thinky at a time in each workspace, and it is yours alone. Moving from the canvas to the Inspector, or from one node to another, keeps the same conversation in the Thinky panel.
When you send a message, Thinky is told which panels you have open and which one you were working in. It is told their identifiers only (a node's lookup, a tab), never a record and never a secret; see what an open panel shares.
The chat beside a query in the Warm Query editor, and the one beside an interface's code, belong to that editor. They have none of the conversation buttons below and keep their Reset Chat button.
Your conversations
The title bar of the workspace's Thinky panel has three buttons. Hover over one to see its name.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| New conversation | Starts an empty conversation and opens it. The one you were in stays in Past conversations. |
| Past conversations | Lists your conversations in this workspace, newest first. Each is named Started and the date and time it began, with Your first conversation last. The open one is marked. Choose one to reopen it with its messages. |
| Clear this conversation | Asks once, then empties the conversation you are in and takes it off the list. |
Clear this conversation asks: "Clear this conversation? It cannot be brought back." Choose Clear to go ahead, or Cancel to change nothing. When you clear the conversation you are in, Thinky goes back to your first conversation. Your first conversation is emptied when you clear it, but it always stays on the list.
A conversation is kept until you clear it. Nothing expires on a clock.
Your conversations are kept with the workspace, not in your browser. Sign in on another computer and Thinky opens the conversation you had open, with the same list.
Nobody else sees or opens your conversations, including the workspace's other members.
What Thinky used
Under an answer for which Thinky used tools, one small grey line names them, for example:
Used: Get Workspace, Read the warm query (Orders by day)
- Each tool is named by its title, as the OpenX MCP Server lists it: Get Workspace, Retrieve Inventory, Get Stats, Call API, Browse Docs, Manage Proposals, and the tools a node kind adds, such as "Read the warm query". A tool with no title shows its tool name.
- The nodes a tool was asked about follow it in brackets, by their names in the workspace. A node the workspace does not name shows its lookup.
- A tool used several times in one answer is named once, with all of its nodes.
- The line leaves out Thinky's own search for tools, and any call it was refused.
- An answer that used no tool has no line.
The line comes from the calls Thinky made, never from what the answer's text says it did. The chat in the Warm Query editor shows the same line.
Point Thinky at a node or a tool
In the workspace's Thinky panel you can tell Thinky what a message is about, or which tool to use:
- Type @ and part of a node's name to list the nodes on your canvases that match, each with its kind.
- Type # and part of a tool's name to list Thinky's tools that match, by title.
Move through the list with the arrow keys and press Enter, or click an entry. Its name goes into your message, for example "@Orders by day" or "#Get Stats". Esc closes the list. The list shows up to eight entries at a time; type more of the name to narrow it. With a screen reader, you hear how many entries match.
A picked node is the subject of that message, and Thinky uses a picked tool to answer it. A pick counts for that message only. To drop a pick before you send, delete its name from the message. A name you type yourself, without picking it from the list, points at nothing.
The # list holds exactly the tools Thinky can use in this workspace: its read tools and Manage Proposals. A tool that changes something in any other way is never listed. If a picked tool cannot be used for this message, Thinky says so.
If an answer stops before it finishes, Retry asks again with the same picks.
What Thinky can see
Above the box, each panel Thinky will be told about when you send shows as a small chip with the node's name, or the panel's title when it has no node. These are the panels from what an open panel shares.
Press × on a chip (Leave out <name>) to leave that panel out of your next message. It counts
for that next message only; the chip is back afterwards. When no panel is open there are no chips.
Stop, Retry and errors
- While Thinky answers, Send becomes Stop. Stopping keeps what was written so far and shows Stopped. with a Retry button.
- If Thinky cannot answer, the panel says "Thinky could not answer:" and the reason, with Retry.
- Retry asks your last message again, with the same picks.
- Enter sends. Shift+Enter starts a new line.
- With a screen reader, each finished answer is read out once, not word by word as it arrives. A failure or a stop is read out as its line.
When Thinky proposes a change
In Proposal Mode, the default, a change Thinky makes is a proposal for you to accept. Under the answer that made it, a Thinky proposed a change link shows. Click it to open the Proposals panel, where you accept or reject the change. See You stay in the loop.
In the mode that accepts Thinky's changes for you (Thinky's two modes), a change that was accepted has no link. A change that could not be accepted is still a proposal, so its answer shows the link. An answer that changed nothing has no link.
AI agents you bring over MCP always make proposals, whichever mode Thinky is in.
Related
- Contributing to Thinky: what a node kind tells Thinky, and the tools it adds.
- You stay in the loop: Thinky proposes; you accept every change.
- Panels and Windows: the panels Thinky is told about.
- Getting a panel back: reopening the Thinky panel.