A chat is a conversation with the AI. Only you see your chats. Admins see which files the AI read, never the conversation.
#Start a chat
- Open a new chat
Choose New chat in the sidebar, or type in the box on the home page.
The home page, with the message box and the folders your AI can see - Ask in plain words
For example: "Summarize last week's sales notes in shared/sales." Type
/to pick a team skill. - Follow the work
Open N steps under an answer to see each tool the AI used and each file it read.
#How an answer works
| Topic | What happens |
|---|---|
| Engine | Members get the team default. People an admin allows can pick an engine and model in the chat. |
| Files | The AI uses Trina's file tools. Each call is checked against your own permissions. |
| Questions | When the AI needs a choice or a confirmation, it shows a card. It cannot answer that card itself. |
| Helpers | For big requests the AI can split work into sub-tasks, up to 4 at a time. Each helper works as you. |
| Length | One answer may use tools up to 150 times by default (admins choose 10 to 500). At the limit, Continue picks it up. |
| Web | The AI can open web pages. The server checks each address, and asks you before risky ones. |
Selected context goes to the AI provider you connected. Self-hosting is not offline processing. Read the data flows.
#Projects
A project is a folder of the team folder, plus instructions. Use it for work that keeps coming back to the same files: a launch, a client, a quarter's report.
- Make a folder a project
In Files, open the menu of a folder you can write and choose Make it a project.
- Write the instructions
Say what the work is and how the AI should help. The first paragraph shows under the project's title.
- Chat in the project
Start a chat from the project's page, or move a chat in from the chat title's menu. The AI then gets that folder and those instructions.
A project's page
- There is no member list. Whoever can read the folder sees the project.
- A folder holds one project. Once it is a project, only an admin moves, renames or deletes the folder.
- Instructions you did not write all by yourself count as outside content. The AI asks before it remembers anything after reading them.
#Find anything
Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) or choose Search in the sidebar to find chats, projects, files, skills, scheduled tasks and MCP connections. Read about search and settings.
#Deleted chats
Deleting a chat moves it to Deleted chats, where you can bring it back for 7 days by default. Admins can choose 1 to 365 days.