Working with agents
Keep each project in the right Otto session
A session is a conversation and its work history for an agent. It holds the questions you asked, the files and decisions you shared, and the agent's results. Use the agent's Main session for work that should build over time, and a focused Chat when a project should stay separate.
Choose a session before you start
Use Main when the earlier conversation is part of the work: for example, planning a launch, tracking open decisions, or revising a report over several conversations. Returning to the same session gives the agent the context it needs without making you repeat the project history.
Start a focused Chat for a distinct project, a sensitive subject, or a one-off question that should not inherit assumptions from Main. For example, keep a hiring project separate from product planning even when the same agent handles both. A separate Chat is a context boundary, not a new agent: it does not change the agent's Personality, connected-app access, model settings, or spending limit.
Start or return to a focused Chat
- Open the navigation menu. On a narrow window or phone, open the menu from the chat; on a wider desktop window, use the sidebar.
- Select the agent you want to work with.
- Choose Chat to open a focused conversation, or select an existing Chat to continue it.
- Give the agent the goal, relevant files or sources, constraints, and the approval boundary for that project.
Keep project-specific instructions in that Chat. Put guidance that should apply to every conversation in the agent's Personality settings instead; see Give an agent context. If the work needs a connected app, the agent still needs that app access in either Main or Chat, and an outside action may still require approval.
Keep automation results in the right place
An automation can post its results to the agent's Main session or keep them in a separate automation conversation. Use Main when each run benefits from the ongoing project context. Use the separate conversation for a self-contained check, report, or monitor so routine results do not clutter your active work. Choose one home for an automation and review its first few runs there.
To change this choice, open the automation, review where its results appear, and save the updated setting. See Choose where automation results appear.
What to do when context is wrong
- If the agent is carrying assumptions from another project, start a new focused Chat and restate the goal instead of trying to correct a long conversation.
- If the agent lacks a decision or source from the project, add it in the current Chat or attach the current file. Do not assume another Chat's contents are available.
- If the agent cannot finish, check the session for a question, pending approval, or error before starting over. See Activity and run logs.
Sessions separate conversation context; they do not duplicate or isolate the agent's files, connections, approvals, or limits. Review those settings before asking the agent to take an action outside Otto.