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Your first chat

After onboarding, Hive opens to an empty workspace. Press ⌘N (or the + next to Chats in the sidebar) to start a new chat.

Empty chat ready for input

Type a message

The composer is at the bottom. Two affordances worth knowing:

  • Target chip (left of the input). Shows who your message goes to. By default it's the chat's primary runtime; type @ to switch to a specific agent.
  • Slash commands. Type / to bring up commands (start plan, open retrieval, attach file, switch runtime, etc.). Selecting one runs it instead of sending text. The Context group includes /summarize and /compact for managing the conversation's context window, and /linear to pull your Linear issues into context.
  • @file references. Type @file to reference a workspace file and pull its contents into your message — handy for "explain @src/foo.ts" without pasting.
  • Voice input. The 🎤 button records audio and transcribes it via a local Whisper CLI, appending the text to the composer. See Voice input & context commands.

Press Enter to send. Shift+Enter or Option+Enter inserts a newline.

Auto-renamed titles

After the first assistant reply, Hive asks the same runtime for a 3–5 word topic summary and renames the chat. You can override at any time by clicking the pencil glyph next to the title (or right-click the chat row → Rename).

Tool calls

If your runtime supports tools (Anthropic / OpenAI / OpenRouter / Claude Code / aider / pi), the model can call built-in Hive tools:

  • File ops: create_directory, create_file, propose_file_write, read_workspace_file, list_workspace_files, move_workspace_path
  • Shell: run_workspace_command
  • Git: git_status, git_diff, git_log, git_show, git_commit

Write tools (anything that changes the workspace) prompt you for approval inline. Approve once, for-this-chat, or always — your choice persists.

Consent banner inline in transcript

What happens after you approve

The tool runs in the workspace root. The result lands as a tool_result block in the transcript so the model can read what happened. If the tool wrote a file, the diff appears in the Review pane on the right rail.

For details on the trust model see Tools, consent & trust.