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The chat interface

The chat page is where you do most of your work in Strata — asking questions, generating reports, and reviewing what the AI did to answer you.

Layout at a glance

Open Chat from the left sidebar. The page has three main areas:

  • Conversation area — the running transcript of your messages and Strata's replies.
  • Composer — the input box at the bottom. A plus button sits on the left; the model picker, a dictate (microphone) button, a voice-mode button, and the send button sit on the right.
  • App sidebar — the collapsible left rail shared across Strata. It lists your previous conversations (with a Show all chats link) alongside the workspace navigation.

If a SQL Server extension is connected, you may also see the artifact panel slide in on the right side when the AI opens a SQL workspace or builds a dashboard. See /docs/chat/artifacts.

Sending a message

  1. Type your question in the input box at the bottom.
  2. Press Enter to send, or Shift+Enter for a new line.
  3. The send button (upward arrow) on the right of the composer activates once you have text. Click it to submit if you prefer the mouse.

While Strata is generating, the send button becomes a Stop button (a filled square). Click it to interrupt the current response.

Reading a streamed response

Strata streams text into the conversation as the model produces it. Three things may appear above or inside the response:

  • Action steps. A collapsible "thinking" trail listing what Strata is doing — running a SQL query, loading a skill, searching the web, running an analysis, etc. Click any step to expand it and see the underlying SQL, code, stdout, or web results that produced it.
  • Rich blocks. Charts, comparison cards, progress bars, timelines, correlation matrices, email drafts, and SQL results render inline as interactive components. See /docs/reference/blocks.
  • Callouts. Highlighted boxes prefixed with a label such as Info, Warning, Success, Note, Tip, Key, Data, or Alert call out important context. See /docs/reference/callouts.

When the response is finished, suggested follow-up questions may be attached to it. They do not render under the answer — they surface in a panel that expands above the prompt input when you focus it while it is empty. Click any suggestion to send it as your next message. Suggestions are optional, so a short factual answer often has none.

The plus menu

The plus button (+) on the left of the composer opens a menu with:

  • Add file or photo — attach a file or image to your next message. See /docs/chat/files.
  • Mode — switch between Auto, Technical, and Simple. See /docs/chat/modes.
  • Permission — only shown when a SQL Server extension is connected. Sets whether the AI may run reads only (Viewer), reads and writes with approval (Editor), or DDL (Admin).
  • Skills — list of your pinned skills plus a Manage in Directory link. See /docs/chat/skills.
  • Extensions — opens the extensions modal where you connect or disconnect OneDrive, Outlook, SQL Server, and Atlassian (one connection covering Jira and Confluence). (If your organization runs Atlassian through one organization account, the connection belongs to the organization — there is nothing for you to connect or disconnect.) See /docs/integrations/atlassian.
  • Plan mode — a toggle that lets the AI propose a plan before executing complex tasks.
  • Web search — a toggle that lets the AI query the public web. See /docs/chat/web-search.

If your organization or your administrator locks the mode or the SQL permission, that row appears read-only and shows "Set by your organization" instead of a picker.

Other composer controls

  • Model picker — the model name with a chevron, to the right of the input box. Click it to switch the AI model for this conversation. The list shows the models your organization has enabled in its Model Catalog, with older models grouped under a legacy section. If your administrator has further restricted which models you personally may use, that limit is enforced when you send. See /docs/chat/models.
  • Dictate (microphone icon) — push-to-talk dictation that converts your speech into text in the input box. Supported in Chrome, Edge, and Safari.
  • Voice mode (waveform icon) — opens an overlay for a hands-free spoken conversation. See /docs/chat/voice.
  • Incognito — a separate button in the empty-state greeting area that starts a one-off conversation that is not saved to your history. See /docs/chat/incognito.
  • Slash menu — type / at the start of the input to open a quick menu of pinned skills and "Attach file or photo".

Attaching files

Three ways to attach:

  1. Click the plus button and choose Add file or photo, or
  2. Drag-and-drop a file directly onto the chat, or
  3. Paste an image from your clipboard.

Strata accepts .pdf, .csv, .xlsx, .xls, .json, .xml, .txt, .md, .sql, .log, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .docx, .pptx, .doc, and .ppt. See /docs/chat/files.

Past chats and pinning

The app sidebar lists your conversations in two sections — Pinned and Recents. The sidebar shows your most recent chats; a Show all chats link at the bottom opens the dedicated All Chats page with every conversation.

  • Pin a chat — hover a conversation row, open its three-dot menu, and choose Pin chat. Pinned chats stay at the top under the Pinned group until you unpin them.
  • Rename — open the three-dot menu and choose Rename.
  • Export — open the three-dot menu and choose Export to download the conversation as a PDF.
  • Delete — open the three-dot menu and choose Delete, then confirm. The conversation is removed from your history immediately. How long the underlying record is retained before it is permanently purged is governed by your organization's chat-retention policy.
  • Search — press Cmd+K (or click the search button in the sidebar) to open the search modal, or use the search bar on the All Chats page to filter by title.

If you'd rather a conversation never be saved to your history in the first place, use Incognito chat.

Starting a new conversation

Click New chat in the sidebar. A fresh conversation begins with a greeting and a grid of topic starters (for example, "Executive briefing" or "Anomaly investigation") that fill the input with a ready-made prompt when clicked. Your current chat stays in the sidebar.

Stopping a generation

Click the Stop button (the filled square on the right of the composer that replaces the send arrow while the AI is producing output) to halt the current response immediately. Strata saves whatever was already produced and marks the response as stopped in the action-step trail.

Queueing your next message

You don't have to wait for a long answer to finish before typing the next thing. Send a second message while Strata is still working and it is queued rather than dropped: it appears as a greyed bubble at the bottom of the thread and is sent automatically the moment the current response completes.

Click the × on a queued bubble to pull it back — the text returns to the composer so you can edit or discard it.

Queued messages run in order, and each one sees the completed answer to the message before it.

Switching models mid-conversation

Changing the model from the composer's model picker does not start a new conversation. The new model reads the entire thread above, which is usually what you want — you can escalate a hard question to a stronger model without repeating yourself.

Because that surprises people, Strata shows a short notice when you pick a model that hasn't been used in this conversation yet: Continuing with <model> — your conversation carries over. It stays until you dismiss it.

Two things worth knowing:

  • Because the new model can read what came before, it may summarize an earlier result rather than re-running the work. Ask it to redo a step if you want genuinely fresh output.
  • Switching back to a model that has already answered in this conversation shows no notice — nothing about the context has changed for it.

If you want the model to work without any of the earlier context, start a new chat instead.

What can go wrong

  • "Send" stays disabled. The button only activates once the input has text and no file uploads are still in progress. Wait for any in-flight upload chip to finish.
  • Response stalls without text appearing. Action steps may still be running; expand the action-step trail to confirm the AI is in a tool call (for example, a "Querying the database" step). If nothing moves for a long time, click Stop and re-send.
  • An attached file shows a red error chip. The upload failed (network or unsupported format). Remove the chip with its x button and re-attach. For unsupported formats, convert to one of the accepted types.
  • A "Reconnecting…" overlay appears. Your connection to Strata was interrupted (network drop or a server restart). The page restores automatically once the connection comes back — you don't need to do anything. If your session has actually expired or been revoked, Strata signs you out and prompts you to sign in again. See /docs/sign-in.

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