# Chat > Where Chat lives, what it can read and propose, how threads work, which model answers, and the request limits and turn clock it runs under. Source: https://orbitalaip.com/docs/chat/overview ## What Chat is Chat is where you ask Orbital questions in plain language. ## Where it lives Click **Chat** in the sidebar. It reopens your last conversation as a full overlay over the page you are on, or docked beside a dashboard if you left it there. Press Esc, or click **Close chat**, to put it away. **Dock to side** turns the overlay into a side panel. Chat also docks itself if you navigate away while the full overlay is open. A thread started on a dashboard docks beside that dashboard. In the panel, **Open as full page** goes back, **Switch conversation** changes thread, and **Close chat dock** closes it. Chat picks up context from the page you open it on: a dashboard, a workflow or strategy in the editor, an agent run or an alert. A chip above the composer names it. **Remove context from the next thread** starts your next thread without it. ## Threads The left pane lists your conversations, **Pinned** first and the rest by when they were last used. **New chat** starts a thread at once. In the full overlay, the **Thread options** menu offers **Transcript**, **Pin**, **Rename**, **Fork**, **Archive** and **Delete**. A row's **Conversation actions** menu offers the same actions except **Transcript**. - **Transcript** switches between **Normal**, **Thinking** (reasoning shown expanded) and **Verbose** (reasoning, tool calls, sources and trace). Your choice applies to every thread. - **Fork** copies the whole transcript into a new thread named **Fork of** the original. **Branch**, on any message, starts a new conversation from that point. - **Archive** takes a thread off the list and keeps it, but Chat has no archived list to reopen it from. - **Delete** moves a thread to [Trash](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/workspace-settings#trash), where you can **Restore** it for 30 days. Dashboards and workflows you already applied stay where they are. A new thread is private to you. Sharing a thread with teammates is not available. ## The composer Four buttons sit beside the **Ask anything…** prompt. - **Attach images and documents** (+) and **Mention a document or workflow** (@) add images, files and Library documents. See [Attach files to a chat](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/chat/documents-and-web#attach-files-to-a-chat). - **Insert a ticker** ($) searches stocks, ETFs and crypto, and **Insert a command** (/) starts a **/dashboard**, **/workflow** or **/chart** request. See [Ask about markets](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/chat/asking-about-markets). While a reply streams, the send button becomes **Stop response**, and Enter queues your next message, up to ten. A message is capped at 32,000 characters. ## The model picker The button next to **Send message** names the thread's model and opens the picker. A thread keeps the model you pick, and a new thread starts on the [workspace default](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/ai-models#choose-the-default-model). ## What Chat can read - Market data: the last trade, bars at sizes from minutes to months, and the market screener. - The platform's data sources, such as fundamentals, news and options, each with its as-of time. - This [project](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#project): dashboards and widgets, workflows and their runs, agents, strategies and their backtests, watchlists and notes, and fired notifications. Strategies need the **Backtesting** app and watchlists and notes need the **Watchlists** app, turned on in the project. - Library documents, searched by meaning, and the **Artifacts** your agents filed from finished runs. See [The Library](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/chat/documents-and-web#the-library). - The public web, where web search is available to your workspace. See [Search the web](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/chat/documents-and-web#search-the-web). Under a reply, a strip names the providers, such as **massive**, counts the sources, and states **data as of** a date. A computed figure whose inputs cannot be traced is flagged under the reply, as in **1 unverified figure was flagged**. **Audit** on a reply opens a panel. **Sources** lists every source the reply read, **Derivations** shows the values Chat computed, and **Turn trace** lists every tool call with its arguments and timing. The panel also gives the model, tokens and [credits](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#credits) the turn used. **Audit** in the header turns that on for every reply. ## What Chat proposes Every change Chat makes arrives as a card: a few routine ones apply at once and keep it, and the rest wait for **Apply** unless you say to go ahead. A backtest starts only when you click **Run**, and a permission only when a workspace owner or admin clicks **Apply**. See [When a change applies in the same turn](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/chat/proposals-and-approvals#when-a-change-applies-in-the-same-turn). ## Request limits and the turn clock One request is one AI reply in chat, however many steps and tools it takes. Each workflow run and agent run also counts as one request, including runs a schedule starts. A workflow that another workflow starts with **Run workflow** does not count again. Browsing the platform, opening dashboards and reading past threads do not count. Your plan sets a number of requests per minute and per day, shared by everyone in the workspace. The daily count resets at midnight UTC. **Settings** → **Billing** shows the requests used today. See [Credits and billing](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/credits-and-billing#what-the-billing-page-shows). When a fifth or less of the day's requests are left, Chat shows a notice counting them. At the limit, Chat shows **Daily request limit reached** with the reset time in your time zone and a **Try again** button. Where a higher plan exists it also offers **Upgrade plan**. Adding credits does not lift the limit: it is a plan limit, not a balance. Past the per-minute limit, Chat shows **Sending too fast**. A turn runs under a ten-minute clock, with no fixed cap on steps. After about eight minutes Chat stops calling tools and writes a closing answer from what it has found. That reply carries the notice **This turn reached its time limit and stopped investigating, so the answer may be incomplete.** Ask a narrower question to finish the job. Starting a thread - "How did CRWV trade into its last five earnings reports?" - "What changed in my watchlist today?" - "Build me an insider-flow dashboard."