> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cortex.foundation/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Talking to a bot
> Direct messages with a bot: what a thread shows, the questions it asks you, outbound drafts, in-thread search, and what its status word means.
A bot in **Cortex Bot** is a standing thing rather than a thread you throw away, and its **Messages** tab is where you talk to it. The same conversation carries on across every turn the bot runs, including turns that a schedule, a skill or another bot started, so the thread is the bot's history as much as it is your chat with it.
This page covers the composer and the suggested asks, the handful of things that can appear as a bubble, the questions and secret requests that stop a turn until you answer, outbound message drafts, finding something in a long thread, and the status word next to a bot's name.
## Send the first message
Open a bot from the **BOTS** section of the Bot sidebar. With no thread yet you get `{name} is idle.` and a row of **Suggested asks**: `Open the computer`, `Catch me up`, `What’s next`, `Review the change`, `Search the web` and `Plan the day`.
A pill is a shortcut for typing and nothing more. The surface says so itself: `No thread yet. These write the composer — they don’t start a run until you send.` Edit what it wrote if you want, then choose **Send**. `Open the computer` is the exception: it opens the Computer rail instead of writing anything.
Once a turn is running you see `{name} is writing…` above the composer, then bubbles as they arrive. The composer placeholder is `Message {name}…` at any other time.
## What appears in the thread, and what does not
A bot's turn is a loop of tool calls, and almost none of it is shown to you. Only these things become visible messages.
| What you see | Where it comes from |
| --------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Your own message | you |
| A short bubble from the bot | the bot's `send_to_user` tool, once per bubble |
| A status notice | the bot's `notify` tool |
| A question widget | the bot's `ask_user` tool |
| A `Secret` widget | the bot's `secret_request` tool |
Everything else the model produced is work, and work is not rendered. Plain prose that the bot wrote outside `send_to_user` is dropped rather than summarised or rewritten, so a bot that wants to tell you something has to say it deliberately. A turn can post at most eight bubbles, each up to 800 tokens, which is why a long job usually arrives as a few short updates rather than a running commentary.
A nested task cannot talk to you at all. Child tasks are stripped of the tools above, so the parent bot is the only voice in the thread. See [Tasks and subagents](/bot/tasks).
The absence of chatter is not the bot being stuck. To watch the detail of a job, open the bot's [Computer](/bot/computer) and watch the screen.
## When the bot needs something from you
Three things stop a turn and wait. All three appear in the thread, and the first two also block the composer until they are settled, so you cannot talk past a question the bot is holding.
An `ask_user` call renders a question widget with **Reply** or **Confirm**, and short **Allow**, **Deny**, **Cancel** or **Dismiss** actions where the question is a yes or no. Answered questions are marked `Replied`; one you waved off is marked `dismissed`.
A `secret_request` call renders a `Secret` widget with a field and a **Give** button, under the note `Never shown in the conversation.` The value goes straight to the bot's vault, sealed, one named field at a time. A field name is 1 to 80 characters and a value is 1 to 4096 characters. See [Connected apps and secrets](/bot/plugins).
When the bot reaches a step that needs your consent, the turn parks and the widget asks `Allow {tool}?` with the bot's reason and the exact arguments it wants to run. Choose **Allow**, **Deny** or **Always**. See [Approvals and tool policy](/bot/approvals).
While a turn is parked or held you may see `Waiting — the bot will continue as soon as it can.` Nothing times out into a silent yes.
## Outbound message drafts
When a bot wants to send a message somewhere else, it does not send it and tell you afterwards. It posts an **Outbound message draft**, marked `Draft · not sent`, and waits.
| Control | What it does |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Approve** | Sends the draft as written |
| **Reject** | Cancels it. Nothing is sent |
| **Edit** | Opens the text for you to change, with **Cancel edit** to back out |
| **Request revision** | Asks the bot for a different version of the same message |
| **Regenerate** | Asks the bot to write the draft again from scratch |
**Request revision** and **Regenerate** work by sending the bot a new instruction, so both start a fresh turn and produce a new draft rather than editing the one on screen. The original is cancelled either way, and if the request fails you are told plainly: `The replacement draft could not be requested. The original draft stays canceled.` A settled draft is marked `Draft handled`.
## Find something in a long thread
Because a bot's thread never resets, it gets long. **Search the conversation** opens an in-thread find with the placeholder `Find in this conversation…`.
* `Type at least two characters` until the query is long enough.
* Matches are counted as `{index} of {count}`, with **Previous match** and **Next match** to step through them.
* `No matches` when nothing hits.
* **Close the search** to go back to the thread.
Individual messages carry **Copy message**, which flips to `Copied`, and **Delete this message**. A message that describes work on code carries **Open in Code**, which is the one link from a bot thread into [Cortex Code](/code/index).
## What the status word means
Every bot row in the sidebar shows a status on the right. Three of them are yours to set.
| Status | Means |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| **Awake** | The bot is available and its computer is up |
| **Resting** | Nothing in flight |
| **Hibernating** | Going to sleep, or asleep, to save resources |
The other status words you may see, `Starting…`, `Running`, `Hibernated`, `Stopped`, `Archived` and `Error`, describe the bot's computer rather than the bot's availability. They are covered in [Computer](/bot/computer).
When a bot has a tool parked, the status word is replaced by a small amber marker and the label `Pending approval`. That marker is the signal to open the bot, or to work the list on [Inbox](/bot/inbox).
## Related
* [Approvals and tool policy](/bot/approvals) - Allow, Deny and Always, and which tools always ask.
* [Computer](/bot/computer) - watch the bot's screen while a turn runs.
* [How Bot works](/bot/how-it-works) - the turn behind the thread, and why it has no round limit.
* [Inbox](/bot/inbox) - every bot's questions, secrets and parked tools in one list.
* [Bot tools](/bot/tools) - the tools that produce the bubbles above.