Prompts, the queue and stopping

Work in a chat moves through prompts, and you can keep sending while DataMind Oda works. This page covers the rules behind the message box: what a prompt must contain, where a message sent during a run goes, and what stopping a turn ends and keeps; the box itself is on Chat with Oda, and a chat's start and its place in your lists are on Sessions: the list and lifecycle.

What a prompt must contain

A prompt is the message that opens a turn, and Oda checks a message's content as it is taken in.

• A prompt needs text that is not only spaces or line breaks, or an attachment. A message with neither is refused: prompt content must include non-whitespace text or an attachment.
• A refused message is not added to the chat, and the chat stays as it was.
• Every prompt carries the time zone your computer reports, read from the app or browser you are using; you never type it. The value is UTC or a standard zone name such as Europe/Berlin, and a common alias is rewritten to its official name before the message is sent. A value that is neither is refused with clientTimeZone must be UTC or a valid IANA Area/Location name, and a message with no zone goes without one.

Sending while Oda is working

• A message sent during a run takes one of two paths: it waits as a queued message, or it joins the running work as steering. Which path it takes depends on how you send it; Sending while Oda works covers the setting and the keys.
• A queued message becomes Oda's next piece of work: it waits its turn and then runs as a turn of its own, after the work in front of it finishes. Queued messages run one at a time, in the order you sent them, oldest first, and nothing is merged into another message's turn.
• A steering message does not wait for the turn to end: it joins the turn that is running, and Oda takes it at its next step. A steer never cuts a step short; the step in flight finishes first.
• The chat shows which path your message took: queued while it waits, steering once it has joined the running work.

Changing a message that is waiting

• While a message is still waiting, it can still be changed: edit it, remove it, or steer it into the running work.
• An edit rewrites the message where it stands: it keeps its place in line, and the updated text is what runs when its turn comes.
• Editing keeps to text. A waiting message that carries a file or an image cannot be edited; the edit is refused with queue edits accept text content only.
• An edit that holds only spaces or line breaks is refused with queue edit content must include non-whitespace text, and the message keeps the text it had.
• Once a message has started sending, it has left the waiting queue, so it can no longer be edited or removed; the change is refused with queued item is no longer pending.
• A steer needs running work that can still take new input. When it cannot, the steer is refused with current turn no longer accepts steering, and the message stays where it was and runs in its own turn instead.

What a stop ends and keeps

• Press Stop in the message box to cancel the turn that is running. The reply keeps the part that had already appeared; it stays unfinished, and Oda does not continue it.
• Work that had not started does not run. A tool call that had not begun is recorded with the result Error: tool call aborted before dispatch; a call that had already started is stopped as well, and its result reads Error: tool call aborted. Oda records a result either way, so nothing is left hanging.
• Only the first stop to reach the turn counts; anything after it changes nothing about how that turn ends.
• Messages that were still waiting are kept, in the order you sent them. A stop does not throw the queue away.
• When a chat is archived while it works, its waiting messages are the exception: an archived chat does not start new work, so they are dropped. This case is covered on Stopping Oda and queued messages.

Questions, answered

If I send two messages while Oda is working, do they run as one turn or two?

Each queued message gets a turn of its own, in the order you sent them; nothing is merged into another message's turn. A steering message is the difference: it joins the turn already running and never opens one of its own.

When does Oda pick up a message I steer?

Between steps. A steer never cuts a step short: the step in flight finishes first, and Oda takes the message at the next step, inside the same turn.

What happens to a message I send while Oda is stopping?

It does not race the stop. It waits, keeps its place in line, and is not lost: it runs when the work starts again.

If I press Stop twice, which one counts?

The first one. The first stop to reach the turn decides how it ends; anything after it changes nothing.

Does a message I steer count as a prompt of the chat?

No. Only the message that opened a turn is a prompt; a message you add inside a turn, such as a steer, continues that turn instead of opening one of its own.

If I edit a message that is waiting, does it keep its place?

Yes. An edit rewrites the message where it stands: it keeps its position in the queue, and the new text is what runs when its turn comes.