How to manage channels and their agents

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# How to manage channels and their agents

This guide shows how to create, rename and delete channels, choose the agents in them, talk with an agent directly, and clear a conversation's history. It assumes Sidekicks runs with a configuration that has agents.

## Create a channel

1. In the **Channels** panel, click **+ New channel** under the list.
2. Type a name (1 to 64 characters, spaces and accents allowed) and press Enter. The channel opens in the centre, with no member.
3. Invite agents (next section), or simply mention one: `@alice …` invites Alice before the answer — the channel says "Alice (assistant) joined the channel."

A name already used by another channel, whatever its case, is refused: the error appears under the name.

## Choose the agents of a channel

- **Invite**: in the channel's header, open **+ Invite** and pick an agent.
- **Remove**: click **×** next to an agent's name in the header. The agent's past messages stay; it no longer answers in this channel unless mentioned again.

## Rename or delete a channel

Hover the channel in the list:

- **✎** turns its name into a text box: type the new name, Enter to keep it, Escape to cancel.
- **🗑** asks "Delete #name and its whole history?": **Delete** removes the channel, its members and all its messages, for good.

## Talk with one agent directly

Click an agent in the **Agents** panel. Its direct conversation opens; the agent stays highlighted while it is shown, and a counter next to it gives the answers you have not read yet. Every message goes to that agent; `@` mentions are plain text there. When the agent is removed from the configuration, its direct conversation is hidden but kept: it comes back if the agent is added again.

## Clear the history of a channel or a direct conversation

To start again from an empty conversation without deleting the channel:

1. Open the channel, or the direct conversation (click the agent in **Agents**).
2. Click **🗑** (*Clear the history*) at the right of the conversation's header. It shows once the conversation has messages.
3. Confirm with **Erase**.

Every message is erased, for good. A channel keeps its name, description and members. The agents start a new conversation: they do not remember what was erased, and their context gauge goes back to zero.

While an agent is answering, the history cannot be cleared: stop it (**■**) or wait for the end of its answer, then click **🗑** again.

## Address the right agent

| You want | Type |
| --- | --- |
| a specific agent to answer | `@name your message` (the list after `@` filters as you type; Tab or Enter picks) |
| several agents to answer in turn | `@alice @bob compare your answers` |
| the agent you were talking with | your message, without mention |
| an agent's command | `/` then pick it in the list; with several agents, `/agent:command` |

## Variants

- **Fold the lists of the left panel**: click the heading **AGENTS** or **CHANNELS** to fold the list under it, again to unfold it. Folded, the heading still shows how many agents or channels there are and, in blue, the answers you have not read yet. Sidekicks remembers it at the next launch. ⌘N unfolds the channels to create one; **Add an agent** stays in the command palette (⌘K) and on ⇧⌘N.
- **Channels from the configuration file**: channels declared under `channels:` are created at startup if they do not exist yet, with their agents; afterwards they are ordinary channels. Removing them from the file deletes nothing ([configuration reference](../reference/configuration.md)).
- **Start again from an empty history, for every channel at once**: use the **Danger zone** ([Reset Sidekicks](reset-sidekicks.md)), or quit Sidekicks and delete the folder `sidekicks/data/<…>` of your configuration (its location is in the [reference](../reference/agents-and-events.md#history)). The channels declared in the file come back at the next launch, empty.
- **"History unavailable" banner**: another Sidekicks has the same configuration file open. This one keeps working, but forgets everything when it quits; close the other one and relaunch.

## See also

- [Channels and what each agent knows](../explanation/channels-and-context.md)
- [Reference: agents, channels and events](../reference/agents-and-events.md)