Stop, edit, branch off
A few message-level controls let you steer a conversation as it happens: stop a reply that’s going the wrong way, edit an earlier message to try a different tack, branch a promising thread off on its own, and give quick feedback on the replies that land.
Before you start
- An active conversation with at least one exchange.
Stop a reply
Replies stream in as the agent writes them. If one is heading the wrong way, with the wrong framing, the wrong language, or running far too long, you can stop it rather than wait it out.
-
While the agent is replying, the send button turns into a Stop control (labelled Stop agent response). You can also press Esc.
-
Stop the reply. Whatever the agent had written so far stays in the thread; it isn’t thrown away.
-
Decide what to do next: send a follow-up that course-corrects, edit the message that set it off, or rephrase and ask again.
Edit a message
Hover a message you’ve sent and choose Edit message to rephrase it. Editing doesn’t overwrite the conversation; it starts a new branch from that point. Your original message and the replies that followed it are preserved, and the agent answers your revised version on a separate track.
The branches sit side by side: a small 1 / 2 counter with arrows appears on the message, so you can move between versions in place and compare the answers without losing the one you already had. It’s usually the quickest way to steer a reply: if the agent misread what you meant, edit the message that set it off and compare the results.
Branch a conversation
Branch from here, available on a reply, spins that point in the conversation off into a brand-new chat. The new conversation inherits all the context up to that response, while the original stays exactly as it was, so you can pursue a specific tangent or hypothesis in its own thread without cluttering the main one.
Reach for it when a single question opens a separate line of enquiry worth its own thread: branch off, explore it fully, and leave the original conversation intact to return to later.
The two behave differently by design: editing a message branches within the same conversation, so you can switch between versions in place; Branch from here starts a separate conversation and leaves the original untouched. The new chat shows up in your history titled Branch · followed by the original conversation's title.
Give feedback on a reply
Every reply carries a thumbs-up and thumbs-down (Good Response and Bad Response) alongside Copy and the export control. A quick rating takes a second and helps the people who tune your organization’s agents see what’s working and what isn’t.
If a reply doesn’t complete
Occasionally a reply won’t finish, whether from a model hiccup, a slow tool, or a dropped connection. If you reload the page or come back to a conversation while a reply is still being written, Ask reconnects and picks the stream up where it left off, so you rarely lose one to a refresh. If a reply genuinely errors, a short message takes its place with a Reload button to try again. If it keeps happening, it may be a temporary service issue or a usage limit; your admin can help you check.
Tips & gotchas
A clean prompt beats a noisy thread. When a reply misses, a clearer follow-up, or an edit to the message that set it off, gives the agent less to untangle than a stack of corrections.
If an agent used a tool that takes a real action, meaning anything that changes something outside the conversation, stopping the reply doesn’t undo that action. Be deliberate with agents that can act on external systems; see Tools overview.