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The text editor, the chat box on the Home and New Conversation pages, is your primary way of communicating with Mesa. Knowing its shortcuts helps you write prompts faster and pull in the right files without leaving the keyboard.

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Write and send messages

Press Enter to send your message. By default, Shift + Enter starts a new line.
You can swap these keys in Settings if you prefer Enter to start new lines.

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Reference files from the chat box

Type @ to open the Select from my files option. Press Enter while it’s open and Mesa expands a larger screen where you can tag specific saved files in your question. To add a one-off document instead, click the paperclip icon or drag and drop the file into the chat box.
Learn when to tag versus attach in Attachments and tagging files.

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Point the agent at sources

Click the Sources button on the chat box to tell the agent where to look. The dropdown lists the collections you’ve pinned (including any vaults) and your active connections, including the organization connections an Owner has set up. Pick one and it’s added to your message as a source cue.
The Sources dropdown open on the chat box
Choosing sources nudges the agent toward the material you care about for that question; it’s a hint, not a hard filter. You can pick several, and the dropdown stays open so you can add more than one.

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Stop a response

While Mesa is working on a response, a stop button (a square) appears on the chat box. Click it to ask the agent to stop; the agent wraps up and ends the response. If the agent doesn’t acknowledge the stop request after a few seconds, the button becomes Force stop. Click it to end the response immediately.
A conversation with a response in progress and the Force stop button highlighted on the chat box

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Stop a subagent

For larger requests, the agent may hand parts of the work to subagents that research in parallel. Each subagent appears as a card in the conversation, with its own stop button. Click it to stop just that subagent; the main agent is told it was stopped and carries on. As with the main response, the button becomes Force stop if the subagent doesn’t acknowledge the request.

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Background tasks

While the agent waits on work it has started in the background, such as subagents or exports, a Waiting on strip appears above the chat box with the number of tasks. Click it to see each task, labeled Subagent or Job, with its progress. Click a subagent’s name to jump to its card in the conversation or open it in the side panel.
The Waiting on 1 task strip above the chat box, expanded to show a running subagent
The strip has its own Notify me when done button, so you can step away while the agent waits. When a task finishes, a note appears in the conversation, such as “Subagent … finished” or “Export of … is ready”. Click it to expand the task’s output. You can keep typing while the agent works. Messages you send are queued above the chat box and delivered when the agent is ready for them.

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Keyboard shortcuts

Writing effective prompts

Phrase your requests so Mesa gives you answers you can use directly.

Attachments and tagging files

Reference saved Mesa files directly from the chat box.

Skills

Invoke reusable task instructions from the chat box.
Last modified on October 20, 2026