A long chat is easy to lose your place in. This page covers how Oda follows new replies while it works, how to read back through the earlier messages, how to move between turns with the rail or the keyboard, and the statistics Oda shows for the chat. For how a chat is laid out and how answers are drawn, see The chat transcript; for how a turn folds its work, see Work details and process folding.
Follow new replies
While you are at the bottom of a chat, it follows the newest output: Oda's steps and replies stay in view as they arrive.
Scroll up and the chat stops following, so you can read at your own pace. Your place stays where you left it.
Return to the bottom and following resumes.
Typing in the message box never counts as reading, so it does not stop the follow.
When you send a message, the chat returns to the bottom.
Back to bottom, the round control above the message box, takes you to the newest message and starts following again in one click.
Load earlier history
At the top of a chat, Load earlier brings older messages back in, one page at a time.
Select Load earlier. The older messages are added above the ones on screen.
Oda keeps your place: what you were reading stays where it is.
Select it again to keep reading back through the chat.
While a page loads, the button shows a busy state. If a page cannot load, the chat shows the reason and its code: Failed to load history: {message} ({code}). Select Load earlier to try again.
Jump between turns
The rail on the right edge of the chat marks every turn the chat has started, in order.
Select a mark to jump to that turn. If that part of the chat is not loaded yet, its mark waits dimmed and is labelled Load and jump to turn {turn}: Oda loads it first, then lands on the turn.
While the turn loads, its mark pulses (with reduced motion, it stays still). The message you land on briefly rings, so you can see where you are.
The mark of the turn you are reading stays highlighted while you read.
Point at a mark to preview the turn: one line of your prompt (up to 50 characters) and up to three lines of the answer (up to 120 characters). A turn that has not answered yet shows your prompt only.
The rail appears once the chat has at least two turns, and Oda hides it when the chat area is narrower than 900 pixels.
A few things about the previews:
A clipped preview ends in an ellipsis. The full text stays in the conversation.
Only your own messages feed the prompt preview. Anything Oda adds to the request itself, and the output of its tools, never appears there.
The answer preview is the start of Oda's final answer for the turn, and it is held back until the turn settles.
A turn with nothing to preview, for example one made only of images, keeps its previews empty. Its mark still stands for the turn.
The rail refreshes at most three times per turn: when the turn starts, when your message lands, and when the turn settles. It does not redraw with every step.
Read with the keyboard
The arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End and Space move through the transcript, and Oda treats them as reading, the same as scrolling.
Press Enter or Space on a folded step to open or close it. How a turn folds its work is covered in Work details and process folding.
The browser's find (Ctrl+F) also reaches text inside folded steps: Oda reveals the step that holds the match.
Chat statistics
Under the message box, Oda shows the chat's figures. How much it shows follows Performance & usage in Chat settings:
Detailed (the default) shows the counts, for example 12 turns 48 steps, followed by the output speed in tok/s when it is known, and the chat's token total with its Cache hit share. The token figures are covered in Token usage and context pressure.
Compact shows only the output speed and the Cache hit share.
In Detailed, select the counts to open Session statistics:
Row
What it shows
LLM time
The time the model spent working on the chat's steps.
Tool time
The time the chat spent in tool calls.
Avg time to first token (TTFT)
The average wait until a step produces its first output.
Tokens per second (TPS)
How fast the replies were produced after their first token.
A row shows only when it has a value. When none has, the counts stay a plain reading and open nothing.
A turn counts once at least one of its steps finishes. An empty turn, or one rejected before a step finished, is not counted.
Every step that finishes counts, whatever its outcome: completed, failed, cancelled, and steps that ran out of tokens.
A cancelled step counts, but adds no time to the figures.
The figures cover the whole chat, not only the part loaded on screen, so paging back through a long chat or a summarised older part does not change them.
A step that was interrupted, for example when the app closed mid-step, still counts once the chat is reloaded.
Questions, answered
Why did the chat stop following new replies?
You scrolled up. The chat stops following while you read and keeps your place. Return to the bottom, or select Back to bottom, and it follows again.
Does typing in the message box stop the chat following?
No. Typing in the message box never counts as reading, so the chat keeps following new replies. When you send the message, the chat returns to the bottom anyway.
Does Load earlier move my place in the chat?
No. The older messages are added above what you are reading, and Oda keeps your place, so the part you were on stays where it is.
What do the marks on the right edge mean?
Each mark is one turn the chat has started, in order. Select a mark to jump to that turn.
Why is the rail missing from my chat?
The rail appears once the chat has at least two turns, and Oda hides it when the chat area is narrower than 900 pixels. Widen the window to bring it back.
Why does a turn's preview show no answer yet?
The answer preview appears when the turn settles. While Oda is still working on the turn, the preview shows your prompt only.
How do I go back several turns?
Use the rail: each mark jumps to one turn, so select the mark for the turn you want. To read back through the chat in pages instead, use Load earlier.
Can I read a long chat with the keyboard?
Yes. The arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End and Space move through the transcript, and Oda treats them as reading, the same as scrolling.
Can I search inside a folded step?
Yes. The browser's find (Ctrl+F) reaches text inside folded steps and reveals the step that holds the match, so you do not have to open every step first.
What counts as a step in the chat statistics?
Every step that finishes, whatever its outcome: completed, failed, cancelled and steps that ran out of tokens all count. A cancelled step adds no time to the figures.
Do the statistics cover the whole chat or only what is loaded?
The whole chat. Paging back through a long chat does not change them, and neither does an older part of the chat having been summarised.