Use chat

What chat is for

CoCalc chat keeps project discussion next to the files, notebooks, terminals, courses, and agent work it is about. Use chat for questions, review notes, handoffs, lightweight records of decisions, and conversations with humans or AI assistants.

Create and use chat

Create a chat file from the project New page or open an existing .chat file. Chat files are project files, so they can live beside the notebooks, assignments, scripts, or folders they discuss.

Use chat when discussion should remain part of the project context. Use a Markdown file when the result should become durable documentation, instructions, or a polished explanation.

Discuss a notebook cell

Use a notebook cell's Chat controls to keep questions and review notes attached to that cell.

1. Click Chat on the cell to open its side-chat discussion. If there are unread messages, this opens the newest discussion with unread messages. Otherwise, it opens the latest active discussion or creates one when needed.
2. Open the arrow beside Chat to choose a particular discussion, or choose New Thread to start another discussion for the same cell.
3. Write your message in the side chat. Use the dropdown to return to the discussion you want to continue.

A red badge counts unread messages; a gray badge counts messages when none are unread. These counts cover the cell's active discussions, excluding archived and resolved threads.

Resolve a LaTeX marker discussion

For a LaTeX discussion attached to a source chat marker, the side-chat header can show a green check. Choose it and confirm Resolve to mark the discussion done and remove its source marker. All discussions attached to that marker are resolved together.

On phones, open Chat tools and choose the green check, Resolve this discussion, when offered. Confirm with Resolve.

The messages remain available as read-only history. Open Archived… in the chat sidebar and choose Open beside the resolved discussion. Its notice identifies who resolved it and when; replying and unarchiving are unavailable.

Mentions

Use @mentions to notify collaborators and create a link back to the relevant conversation or document context. See Mentions for the notification workflow.

Safety

Do not paste passwords, API keys, private tokens, or project secrets into chat. Use project secrets for credentials that code needs at runtime.