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Using the Root Chat

The root chat is your conversation with the System agent. Plain language in, work out. Describe what you want; the System agent drives Grackle — creating tasks, spawning agents, managing environments.

It is durable. History persists server-side and reloads on mount, so it survives a refresh and follows you across tabs. Pick it back up and the same conversation continues. No suggested actions, no fresh start.

One prerequisite​

You need a connected local environment. Until one exists, the message input stays hidden and the empty state tells you so.

Add one first — see Connect an Environment. Then return to the chat and the input appears.

Ask for what you want​

  • "Add a Docker environment called build-server and provision it."
  • "Create a task to fix the flaky auth test in the API workspace and start it."
  • "What tasks are running? Any failures?"

The System agent runs on a swappable runtime — Claude Code, Copilot, Codex, GenAIScript, or an ACP-bridged agent. Whichever your default persona specifies.

Where it lives​

The root chat is the landing page of the web UI. It is strictly the root-task conversation. For agent-to-agent IPC streams, use the Coordination tab.

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