While DataMind Oda works on a task, every action it takes appears in your chat as a step row: one line to scan, with the details one click away. This page explains the row itself: how it is labelled, what its states mean, how approvals and rejections show, and how to open, inspect and copy its details. For how Oda's tools are offered and controlled, see Tools and how they are offered.
What a step row shows
Each row starts with an icon for the kind of step: running a command, reading or changing a file, searching, a web call, a step of code, or a general step for anything else.
The one-line title is the short description Oda writes for the step. When there is none, the step's first target stands in: a file path, a query, or the command itself.
Paths are shortened for reading, and your home folder appears as ~.
A step Oda does not recognise is labelled with the tool's own name. If nothing else is recorded, the step shows its recorded call id.
Step states
Running. The title shimmers while the step works. While Oda reasons, the row shows a Running indicator and a Think control that previews the reasoning, reading like Think Next paragraph: ....
Settled. The step finished, and the row remains as your record of it.
Failed. The row shows the first line of the failure in place of the usual summary, so the cause is visible without opening the card. It keeps the ordinary styling: the red error styling is kept for a failed turn, and a failed step is feedback that Oda continues from or tries another way. A call can also fail before it runs, for example when its recorded request was incomplete; nothing on your computer changes in that case.
Stopped. The step was interrupted before it finished, for example when you stopped the turn. A stopped command says so on its row, reading Error: tool call aborted; see Shell commands.
The state stays visible even when you point at the row, and the row keeps the step's usual icon, so you can still tell what kind of step it was.
The state is also written out for screen readers: running, failed or stopped. Step rows follow the text size you set for chat content.
Open a step's details
Click the row, or focus it and press Enter or Space. The same action closes it again. Pointing at a row reveals a chevron that previews that it opens.
Opening shows the step's card: a command's output, a file change, a read excerpt, search matches, a web card or an image. A step without a card of its own opens to its recorded details. What each kind of card holds is on Step cards in chat. In short:
Reads show a short excerpt of the file with its line numbers. The path is a link that opens the file where the read started.
Edits compare the change, with added and removed lines, and their totals on the row. A new file or an overwrite has no old text, so nothing is shown as removed. The changed file is a link; when it opens, the step's comparison is attached to it.
Searches group what was found by file, with a count, and say when the list is capped.
Web cards list the pages Oda used, with the HTTP status of each request.
A card body is a preview. Long content keeps its beginning and end in view, with a control inside that states how much more it will add, reading like Expand 4 more lines; when a card shows only part of a result, it says so.
When the step kept a recorded view, Inspect opens it: the fuller record that the card only previews. It opens without collapsing the card, so the preview stays in place.
The Copy control on command, change and search cards puts the step's recorded content on your clipboard, with the card's own trimmings left out and a command's colours kept. It confirms with Copied for about a second.
Steps inside steps
The rows form a tree, in the order the calls ran. A step can start other steps inside it. Those appear as nested rows, indented under their parent, and each keeps its own open or closed state as you read.
Closing the parent closes its nested rows too. Expand it again and each nested step is still there, opening on its own.
A step that runs a block of code shows the calls it dispatches while it runs as nested rows.
Approvals: allow, reject or cancel
Some steps wait for your answer before they run. The ask appears as an approval card in the chat; Your first task shows the choices and what each one does.
Approved. The step runs, and its card then shows what it did, like any other step.
Rejected. The step does not run and stays in the chat as a rejected call. Its recorded result reads Error: the user rejected tool "<name>". When you reject with instructions, your words become the call's note, and the record continues with Instead, the user asked: <text>.
Cancelled. When the ask is cancelled, the step does not run and records Error: approval for tool "<name>" was cancelled.
If nothing can ask you at all, the step does not run either, and the record says it needed approval. Wider-access requests have their own page: Command sandboxing and approvals.
Denied and rejected steps
A step that Auto review denies, or that you reject, never runs. It never shows its usual card and stays in the chat as a plain row. Nothing on your computer changed.
The denial from Auto review reads Rejected by Auto review on the row. Opening it reads Tool was not executed. Reason: ..., with the reason spelled out. The denied call's raw arguments are not shown.
When you reject a step, your reason is kept as its note, and its recorded output is dropped.
When a step opens as a plain block
Oda does not guess. When a step's record cannot be laid out as a card, the row opens to a plain block: the recorded request under IN, the recorded result under OUT. Step cards in chat covers this fallback.
A record that was cut off where it was saved is marked Output truncated.
Steps that name a file never show a raw request block; the path in the row is the way in.
The same fallback appears when a result is too large to keep in the chat and is stored separately; Shell commands describes that case for commands.
The steps chip and the STEPS card
While Oda works through a checklist of steps, a chip sits above the message box: a checklist glyph, the name Steps, the count of finished steps out of the total like 3/7, a short bar, and the step being worked on.
For screen readers the chip reads like Steps: 3 of 7, now Reconcile.
Pressing the chip opens Activity and flashes the STEPS card into view.
The STEPS card shows the whole checklist: up to seven steps at a time, each marked done, running or queued, with Show all opening the rest and Show fewer folding it back.
Oda writes a short description for the step and shows it as the row's title. When no description is recorded, the step's first target stands in: the file path, the query, or the command. Paths are shortened for reading, and your home folder appears as ~. A step Oda does not recognise is labelled with the tool's own name; if nothing else is recorded, the step shows its recorded call id.
Why is a running step's text shimmering?
The shimmer shows that the step is still working. It stops when the step settles. If your computer asks for reduced motion, the shimmer is off.
What does it mean when a step is stopped?
The step was interrupted before it finished, for example because you stopped the turn. It keeps its place in the chat marked as stopped rather than failed, and what it recorded so far stays readable. Ask Oda to run it again if you still need the result.
What does Inspect show that the card does not?
When the step kept a recorded view, Inspect opens it: the fuller record that the card only previews. It opens without collapsing the card, so the preview you were reading stays in place.
Do denied and rejected steps keep a record?
Yes, on the step's row: a denial from Auto review reads Rejected by Auto review, and a rejection of yours keeps your reason as the row's note. Nothing else is kept, because the step never ran: there is no result to lay out.
How is a failed step different from a failed turn?
A failed step reports the failure on its row and keeps the ordinary styling; the red error styling is kept for a turn that fails. A failed step is feedback: Oda is told what went wrong and can carry on or try another way. See Step states.
What happens when I press the steps chip?
It opens Activity and flashes the STEPS card, so you can see the whole checklist at once. Activity at a glance covers the other signals around the chat.
What do done, running and queued mean in the STEPS card?
They are the three states of a checklist step: steps that completed read done, the step in progress reads running, and steps still to come read queued.
Why does a step say that approval was cancelled?
The ask for your approval was cancelled, so the step did not run. The recorded result reads Error: approval for tool "<name>" was cancelled.
Why does a newly created file show only added lines?
There is no earlier text for the file in that change, so there is nothing to show as removed.