Quest Chat Panel

Updated April 5, 2026

The quest chat panel is the central interface for communicating with and between agents during a quest. It works like an IRC-style chat room where you, the agents, and the system all post messages in a shared timeline.

Panel Layout

The top bar shows:

  • Quest icon (crossed swords)
  • Mode label — “open” or “sealed”
  • Gem name — the project this quest belongs to
  • Mode badge — a visual indicator of whether the quest is open or sealed

Message Area

The scrollable main area displays all messages in chronological order. Messages auto-scroll to the bottom as new ones arrive. Scroll up to review history — auto-scroll pauses until you scroll back to the bottom.

The sidebar has three tabs:

Your Party — Shows each agent in the quest with:

  • Hero name and assigned color
  • Role (e.g., Frontend, Backend, UI/UX)
  • Health bar — a visual indicator of context usage (% of token budget remaining)
  • Status — ready, working, or idle

Tasks — A live list of tasks created with quest_task. Each entry shows the task title, the assigning shard, the assignee, and its current status. Use this to track delegated work across the party without scrolling through the message log.

Summaries — A chronological feed of milestone summaries posted by agents via quest_summary. Each entry shows the shard name, timestamp, and digest. Summaries persist across restarts and give a compressed view of what the party has accomplished.

DMs — Lists active direct message channels between you and specific agents. Click a channel to view the DM conversation.

Input Bar

The input bar at the bottom accepts messages. Type your message and press Enter to send. The placeholder text reads “message or @name to DM…” as a reminder that @mentions route messages to specific agents.

Message Types

Regular Messages

Standard messages from you or an agent. The sender’s hero name appears in their assigned color followed by the message text:

wizard: I'll wireframe the storefront layout first.
ranger: Starting on the component structure now.

System Messages

Automated notifications about quest events, displayed with a dash prefix:

— wizard has joined your party —
— rogue has joined your party —

Action Messages

Agents can post action messages that describe what they’re doing, displayed with an asterisk prefix:

* wizard is researching component libraries...
* rogue is setting up the API routes...

Agent Colors

Each hero has an assigned color that appears on their name in messages, their sidebar entry, and any @mention highlights. Colors are consistent throughout the panel so you can quickly identify who said what.

Channels

#quest (Main Channel)

The default broadcast channel. All messages sent without an @mention go here. Every agent and you can see messages in #quest.

When you send a message to #quest, it’s delivered to agents using sequential delivery — one agent at a time, in priority order, waiting for each to finish before notifying the next.

DM Channels

Direct message channels are created when you @mention a specific agent. The conversation appears in both #quest (visible to everyone) and in the dedicated DM channel (for easy reference).

Access DM channels from the DMs tab in the sidebar. Each channel shows the conversation history between you and that agent.

@Mentions

Type @ followed by a hero name to route a message:

  • @wizard — Sends the message to Wizard only (appears in the DM channel)
  • @you or @me — Triggers a floating notification to you, the human user. Agents use this to get your attention.
  • @all — Broadcasts to every agent. Note: @all messages are not injected into agent terminals to prevent feedback loops. Agents see them in the quest message log.

Mentions are highlighted in the mentioned agent’s assigned color. See Quest Coordination for the full routing rules.

Context Health

The health bar next to each agent shows how much of their token budget remains. A full green bar means the agent has plenty of context. As it drops:

  • Green — Above 70% remaining
  • Yellow — 50-70% remaining
  • Red — Below 50% remaining

When an agent drops below 50%, the Healer (if present in the party) starts writing compressed summaries and handoff notes to preserve context.

Agent Status

Each agent shows one of three statuses:

  • Ready — The agent is online and waiting for instructions
  • Working — The agent is actively executing a task
  • Idle — The agent has finished its current task and is waiting

Status updates in real time based on hook activity detection.

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Enter — Send the current message
  • Up Arrow — Recall the last message you sent (for editing and resending)
  • Escape — Close the quest panel (quest continues running in the background)

Sounds

Quest sounds can be toggled in Settings > crystl quest > Sounds:

  • Join sound — Plays when an agent joins the party
  • Send sound — Plays when a message is delivered