Conversations

The composer

At the foot of the panel: a text field that grows up to about ten lines. Return sends, ⇧Return makes a new line, Esc closes the panel. The placeholder says what’s expected: Write, paste an article or a link…, then Add more, or ask for a change…, and while a draft is open Ask for changes to the draft….

Under the field:

• The model menu: which model builds, and how hard it thinks (Low, Medium, High, Extra high, Max for Claude). Disabled while a turn runs.
• Existing nodes: whether the names and types of nodes already in the graph go along, so Claude can connect to them. Its tooltip says exactly what leaves the Mac:
  • Off: only your graph’s shape is sent. Drafted nodes are still checked against your graph on this Mac, and likely duplicates flagged.
  • On: the names and types of your 312 nodes go along with the shape, so Claude can connect to them. Nothing else leaves your Mac.
  • For a large graph: On: your graph has 3,277 nodes, so only the names of the ones your message seems to mention go along, found by name and by meaning on this Mac.
• The paperclip: add a PDF, a text file, HTML, Markdown or a picture. You can also drop files, pictures or links onto the panel (“Drop to add to your message”), or paste them.
• ↑ sends; ■ stops.

Attachments show as chips (a thumbnail for a picture, a document icon for a file) with × to remove. Links in your text are read when you send; a line under the field says so: Reads nytimes.com on this Mac when you send or Reads 3 links on this Mac when you send.

A turn in the transcript

Your message on the right (long ones fold at eight lines with Show all), with its attachment chips. Then Claude’s reply: each step with a spinner, tick or mark and its time; the thinking folded under the drafting step (“Thinking · 8 s” with the latest line; click to read; later “Thought for 31 s”); the summary; the result card; the meta line. A turn sent from another AI app over MCP is labelled Sent from Claude Desktop or Asked in Claude Desktop.

The history

Conversations live in the project’s folder, one per conversation, per mode (graph or shape). The one open last time is there again when the project opens, with its draft checked against the graph as it is now. The clock button lists earlier ones under Today, Yesterday, Previous 7 Days, Previous 30 Days and by month, each with its first message as title, when, how many messages, what it added (“added 5 nodes and 7 relationships”) and Draft to review when one is still open. More than six and a search field appears. Click one to open it (not while Claude is answering: “Stop it to switch conversations”); hover for the trash, which asks “Delete this conversation? What it added stays.”

The pencil starts a fresh conversation and keeps the current one in the history, draft and all.

What earlier turns tell Claude

Each later message includes the earlier exchanges that came to something: your message, Claude’s summary, and what became of its draft (“The person applied this draft to the graph” / “discarded this draft” / “undid this”). So “now add the authors too” works, and so does “take out the second one”.