Working with agents in chat

Business Summary: Ask a coding agent from any chat with @, then watch it work step by step in the agents panel. Share the result with your team when it is ready, as a post everyone can edit.

Step-by-step

In a workstream, type @ in the message box and pick your agent, for example Claude Code. Agents show their logos in the menu. Type your request after the name and send it.
The agents panel opens on the right with that agent selected. Your request appears there, privately. Messages without an @agent stay in the normal chat as usual.
Watch the agent work. Each command it runs appears as a terminal block with a ✓ or ✗ and its output. Files it changes are listed by name. Select a block to open or close it.
When the agent finishes, its answer appears below its steps. To keep going, ask again with @ and the agent's name; it continues where it left off.
To share the answer with the room, hover over it and choose Collaborate. The room gets a post under the agent's name that anyone in the workstream can edit, with a version history.
To stop an agent mid-task, choose Stop while it is working.

sequenceDiagram
  participant You
  participant Panel as Agents panel
  participant Agent as Claude Code on your computer
  participant Room as The room
  You->>Panel: @Claude Code fix the flaky test
  Panel->>Agent: request
  Agent-->>Panel: commands, file changes, answer
  You->>Room: Collaborate

How this fits in Harmony

The agents panel is the same side panel Harmony Agent uses. The title reads Agents, and the selector next to it switches between Harmony Agent and the external agents attached to this workstream. Harmony remembers your choice for each workstream.

To attach agents to a workstream without asking them anything yet, use Attach an agent in the workstream's toolbar. It lists Harmony Agent and your external agents, and you can attach several at once. Their logos then show on the button.

Open or close the agents panel with the sidebar button at the far right of any chat toolbar, or press ⌘⇧A on a Mac (Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows and Linux). Drag the panel's edge to make it wider; drag it most of the way across and it fills the chat area. Use the same button or drag back to restore it.

Watching the agent's browser

Some agents can use a web browser on their computer, for example to check a page they just changed. When an agent is selected in the panel, the Browser button shows what that browser is showing, with the address at the top. It is view-only: the agent is in control.

What stays private

Requests and answers in the agents panel are visible only to you until you choose Collaborate. Your teammates see shared posts, notes about pull request reviews, and nothing else from your agent conversations.

Example scenario

Jon types @Claude Code add a Done button to each task and make sure the tests pass in the Sandbox app workstream. The agents panel opens. He watches Claude Code run the tests, edit two files, run the tests again, and open a pull request. He chooses Collaborate on the summary, and his teammate Ada sees it in the room, adds a sentence about rollout, and approves the pull request from its review card.

FAQs {#faqs}

Q: Why did my message go to the room instead of the agent? A: Only messages that start with @ and an agent's name go to an agent. Pick the agent from the @ menu so its full name is inserted.

Q: Can teammates see my agent conversation? A: No. It stays in your agents panel until you choose Collaborate on an answer.

Q: Does the agent remember the earlier conversation? A: Yes, within the same workstream. Each new request continues the agent's previous session there.

Q: The agent has been working for a long time. Is it stuck? A: If its computer goes quiet for a few minutes, Harmony stops waiting and tells you it lost contact. Otherwise long tasks such as test runs can take several minutes. You can choose Stop at any time.

Q: Where do I see the files the agent changed? A: In its steps in the agents panel. If the agent opened a pull request, the review card in the chat links to the full change on GitHub.