Skip to main content
The Chat Workspace is the primary operational interface within the Palyra Web Console. It provides a high-fidelity environment for interacting with AI agents, managing multi-session lineages, and inspecting the internal state of the gateway’s execution pipeline.

​
Overview and Core Orchestration

The workspace is centered around the ChatConsolePanel, which orchestrates several specialized hooks and components to maintain a real-time, streaming view of agent activity apps/web/src/chat/ChatConsolePanel.tsx#70-75.

​
State Management and Hooks

​
Workspace Data Flow

The following diagram illustrates how user input in the ChatComposer flows through the streaming architecture to update the ChatTranscript. Chat Workspace Data Flow Sources: apps/web/src/chat/ChatConsolePanel.tsx#117-153, apps/web/src/chat/useChatRunStream.ts#1-10, apps/web/src/chat/ChatComposer.tsx#53-84.

​
Chat Composer

The ChatComposer is a sophisticated input area that supports multi-modal attachments, context budgeting, and command execution apps/web/src/chat/ChatComposer.tsx#53-84.

​
Slash Commands

The workspace supports various / commands to perform administrative and session actions without leaving the keyboard apps/web/src/chat/chatShared.tsx#76-163.
  • /new [label]: Creates a fresh session.
  • /branch [label]: Creates a child session from the current state.
  • /compact [apply|preview]: Triggers transcript compaction to save tokens.
  • /delegate <profile> <text>: Spawns a background sub-run using a specific agent profile crates/palyra-daemon/src/delegation.rs#1-10.

​
Context Budgeting

To prevent LLM context overflow, the composer calculates a ContextBudgetSummary apps/web/src/chat/chatShared.tsx#54-65. It tracks:
  • Baseline Tokens: Existing session history.
  • Draft Tokens: Current text in the composer.
  • Attachment Tokens: Estimated tokens for uploaded files/images. The UI displays a warning if the total exceeds CONTEXT_BUDGET_SOFT_LIMIT (12,000 tokens) or CONTEXT_BUDGET_HARD_LIMIT (16,000 tokens) apps/web/src/chat/chatShared.tsx#22-23.

​
Drag-and-Drop & Attachments

The composer implements a pushFiles handler that processes FileList objects from drag-and-drop events apps/web/src/chat/ChatComposer.tsx#112-121. Files are uploaded via api.uploadChatAttachment, returning a ChatAttachmentRecord that includes a content_hash and budget_tokens apps/web/src/chat/chatConsoleUtils.ts#164-186.

​
Chat Transcript and A2UI

The ChatTranscript renders the conversation history as a series of TranscriptEntry items apps/web/src/chat/ChatTranscript.tsx#27-42.

​
Specialized Entry Types

  • approval_request: Pauses the run and renders ApprovalRequestControls. Operators can grant permissions (Once, Session, or Timeboxed) for sensitive tool calls apps/web/src/chat/chatShared.tsx#230-235.
  • a2ui (Agent-to-User Interface): Renders dynamic, JSON-patched UI components using the A2uiRenderer. These are used for interactive dashboards or complex data visualizations generated by the agent apps/web/src/chat/ChatTranscript.tsx#1-2.
  • canvas: Renders sandboxed iframes for web-based artifacts. The collectCanvasFrameUrls utility deduplicates and limits these URLs for security and performance apps/web/src/chat/chatShared.test.ts#93-142.

​
Media and Derived Artifacts

When files are uploaded, the MediaDerivedArtifactRecord pipeline triggers. For example, an image might generate an OCR text artifact or a thumbnail. The transcript allows operators to recompute, quarantine, or purge these derived outputs apps/web/src/chat/ChatTranscript.tsx#82-142.

​
The Inspector Side Panel

The ChatInspectorColumn provides deep visibility into the “Code Entity Space” of the current session apps/web/src/chat/ChatInspectorColumn.tsx#96-141.

​
Workspace Signals

​
Transcript Tools

The inspector includes a TranscriptSearchMatch interface for querying the JournalStore apps/web/src/chat/ChatInspectorColumn.tsx#27-36. Users can search for specific tool calls, payloads, or assistant summaries across the entire session history. Inspector Entity Mapping Sources: apps/web/src/chat/ChatConsolePanel.tsx#86-103, apps/web/src/chat/ChatInspectorColumn.tsx#38-44, apps/web/src/chat/chatConsoleUtils.ts#22-30.

​
Implementation Details

​
Session Compaction

To maintain performance in long-running conversations, the workspace supports ChatCompactionArtifactRecord. Compaction summarizes older transcript segments, replacing raw records with a summary_preview to reduce the context load while preserving intent apps/web/src/chat/chatConsoleUtils.ts#50-70.

​
Data Persistence

Every event in the workspace is backed by the JournalStore. The ChatTranscriptRecord includes origin_kind and origin_run_id, allowing the UI to reconstruct the provenance of every message, especially in branched or delegated scenarios apps/web/src/chat/chatConsoleUtils.ts#32-39. Sources: