The conversation on a task or note

Every task, note and item in Roma has a conversation of its own with the operator, kept beside the thing it is about and open again weeks later exactly where you left it. In that conversation the operator knows what you are looking at: "this" means that task, an edit lands in that body, and research comes back into that chat. Your main conversation stays separate and never merges with it.

Where to find it

On the Mac and in the browser, open an item and its conversation sits in the rail on the right. A switch at the top of the rail reads This task, This item or This list on one side and Global on the other, so you can move between the item's own chat and your main conversation without leaving the item. The rail follows your main conversation as you move from item to item, and switches over on its own when you open an item that already has a conversation of its own. The token in the composer names what the chat is about.

On the iPhone, open an item and the pill at the bottom reads Chat about, followed by the item's title. Tap it and the chat opens as a sheet over the item. The chat also peeks up on its own as an item opens, resting at half height with the newest message in view, so a waiting reply is on screen without a tap: swipe up for the whole chat, swipe down and it is gone. The circle at the top right of the sheet switches between This task and the global chat, so your main conversation is one tap away from any item.

What the operator does there

Standing on an item, the operator reads it before it answers. Ask it to break the task into a checklist, research it and add what it finds, write a first draft in the notes, set a due date, or move it to another list, and it does that to this item. Highlight a passage in the body and say "fix this", and only that passage changes. "Add the flight number" adds to the body and keeps every word already there, and the operator rewrites the whole body only when you ask for a rewrite, which pauses on a card first. The rules behind that are in what the operator does with what you say.

Noor opens the note from a client call, highlights the paragraph about pricing and writes "turn this into three options". Only that paragraph becomes three options. She then writes "add a task to send them by Friday", and the operator creates the task, due Friday, and shows it as a row under its message.

The first turn on a new task

A task you type, or pick from the examples a new account starts with, starts the operator at once. Its first turn asks the one question that decides the work, or does the small obvious step, and it lands in the task's own chat. While it works, the row in your list pulses grey, and the pulse turns amber when a reply is waiting for you. Open the task and the chat shows what it did. A list where you would rather add items quietly has a switch for this: choose Edit list and turn off Assist with new tasks (Assist with new items on any other list). The rest of a list's settings are in what a list can do.

When the operator asks a question in a task's chat, it tells you in your main conversation that the task is waiting on you, with a card that opens the task's chat at the question. Answer in the main conversation and the answer is passed on to the task's chat, where the work continues.

The marks that say something is waiting

A grey pulse on an item means the operator is working on it right now. An amber mark means a reply you have not read is waiting in its chat. You see the mark on the item's row in a list, on a tab in the strip on the Mac, and in the pill at the bottom of the item on the iPhone. Opening the chat clears it. On the Mac and in the browser, an item's menu also offers Mark as read, which clears the mark without opening the chat.

Messages, replies and reactions

Every message is a row with its author and the time it was sent. On the Mac and in the browser, hover over a row for React, Reply and a menu with Copy text and Delete message. On the iPhone, press and hold a row for React and Reply. A reply quotes the message you replied to and the operator reads it as such. A reaction never reaches the operator. When the operator used tools, the row's header counts them ("2 steps"), and a click opens the list of what ran. A draft the operator wrote sits in a draft box with a copy control, and what it created shows as a row under the message.

One conversation beside many

You have one main conversation, the same on every device, and one conversation per item, and the two never merge: a task created from the main conversation still gets a chat of its own. A shared task or note has one shared conversation that everyone on it reads, which the rail calls Thread, and share a task or a note covers it.

Questions people ask

Can I ask the operator about a task without opening it?

Yes. In your main conversation, name it: "move the dentist task to Friday" or "what did I write in yesterday's note". The operator finds the item and acts on it, and names it as a chip in its reply so you can open it from there.

Why did the operator start talking as soon as I created a task?

That is its first turn on the task. It asks the one question that decides the work, or does the small obvious step, so a task is moving the moment it exists. Turn it off per list under Edit list with Assist with new tasks.

Where did the operator's research go?

Into the task's own chat. Research you asked to see stays there, and the operator offers to add it to the task's body when it belongs there. "Research this and add what you find" writes it into the body as an addition.

Can I delete a message from a conversation?

Yes. On the Mac and in the browser, open the row's menu, choose Delete message and confirm. Your own messages and the operator's can both be deleted from a private conversation, and the rest of the conversation stays as it was.