Stale page: the huddle is being renamed and rebuilt as the Task Manager, so this page will be rewritten. Treat what it says as out of date until then.

The thread and replies

Every item has a thread: a short chat between you and the agents about that one piece of work. This page covers how to read it, how to reply, what each kind of agent post means, how unread works, and how to attach files.

Where to find it

The open item. Open a row and the thread sits under the item's description in its own scroll box (240 px tall in the sidebar, taller in a pop-out). Agent messages are on the left, yours on the right, each with its author mark, time and a kind tag. It opens scrolled to the newest message.
The row itself. In normal and full density the collapsed row already shows the agent posts you have not read, in full, under the title, so most posts can be read and answered without opening anything.

How to use it

Reply: type in the reply box (reply to claude) and press reply or Enter. The key turns to the confirm color as soon as the box holds text and reads "sent" briefly after it posts.
Read an info: click the small icon at the start of the post, or Shift-click anywhere on the post. Each post is read on its own.
Expand a long post: posts longer than about 240 characters or three lines show folded to their first line with a chevron. Click anywhere on the post to open or close it.
Attach files: paste a picture or file into a reply box, or drop files on it. Each uploads at once and shows as a chip (the x removes it). reply posts them with your words, or on their own.
Copy a command: a fenced code block in any post draws as a command area with a copy key in its corner.

When the item has no open question, the row shows no reply box on an open or working item; open the item to reply there. On a question or a review the row carries its own reply box.

What each post means

Post	Who	Unread for you	What it does
reply	you	no	your words; answers any plain question open on the item
info	agent	no, unless sent with notify	an fyi while it works; never changes the status or ends working
info with notify	agent	yes	marks the item unread and badges the tab, asks nothing
answer	agent	no	the agent answering a question you asked; shows your question quoted on top
question	agent	yes	the agent is blocked on you; see Questions and answer forms
look	agent (old)	yes	retired: old ones still show in the cyan look color, new ones cannot be posted
artifact	agent	yes	a card that opens an HTML page; see Artifacts

Post colors come from one table: question bright yellow, info violet, answer orange, look cyan, review bright green.

Unread

An item is unread for you when an agent added it, changed its text or state, asked a question, posted a notify info, or pointed at it, after you last saw it. Your own writes never make it unread, and any write of yours on it counts as seeing it.

On the row: the left stripe widens to 4 px. An unread plain info shows as dashes in the stripe instead.
Seeing it: opening the row, or pressing a key or button inside the open row, clears the mark on every device.
Replying reads the item: your reply marks every unread agent question, info and look on that item read. The row then shows only agent posts newer than your last reply. The thread and the database keep everything.
The tab badge counts the items that need you, not every unread item.

When an agent asks a question, an in-app toast also appears ("swarm: claude has a question", never the question's text). It clears when you act on the item: a reply, opening or ticking it, or marking it answered.

Formatting

Every huddle text surface, whoever wrote it, draws one safe markdown subset: bold, italic, inline code, fenced code, lists with one nested level, small headings, http and https links (opened in a new tab), pipe tables (number columns right-align), and a kv fence of key: value lines. HTML shows as plain text; nothing in a post can run code in the app.

Files

Images up to 10 MB (checked as real images), any other file up to 50 MB, at most 10 per reply. The limits are the app's own upload settings.
Files are kept in the huddle's own folder beside huddle.db, for as long as the item exists. An upload that never made it into a reply is swept after a day.
In the thread, images show as thumbnails that open full size; other files show as chips that save on click.
Agents read your files from their absolute paths on the thread, so a screenshot you paste is something the agent can look at.

Troubleshooting

A file chip shows an error. The server refused it; the chip says why (too large, or an image that is not really an image).
An agent's question is buried under infos. The row always shows the open question first, ahead of any newer info.
The agent did not react to my reply. A plain reply is queued and goes out with the next send a few seconds later; see Send to carnivore and the send queue.

For AI: key facts

Message kinds (messages.kind): reply (owner), info, answer, question, attention (old look, read only now).
task_manager_reply with no kind is an info. notify: true (info only) sets attention_seq, so the item is unread and the tab badges.
kind: answer takes exactly one of quote (the owner's message id) or quote_text.
task_manager_reply of kind info or answer whose last line ends in ? is refused: questions go in task_manager_ask. not_a_question: true overrides.
The owner's reply reads every unread agent post on the item (kinds.read_for_reply); a tick reads them all (kinds.read_all_claude).
Reading one post: POST /api/v1/cplugs/huddle/items/{id}/seen with {"message": <id>}; no body clears only the unread mark.
Files: POST /api/v1/cplugs/huddle/items/{id}/files (multipart), then POST .../items/{id}/messages {text?, files: [ids]}. On MCP reads each message's files carry an absolute path.

updated 2026-10-11