Engineering with Chat

Chat can work as a general software and data engineering harness. The visible tool registry in Settings → Tools is the current capability source; do not assume a tool exists because a model describes one.

Workspaces and containment

The primary workspace comes from Settings → Behavior or the backend launch directory. Explicit secondary mounts can widen access to named roots. Relative paths are resolved within those roots, and traversal or escaping links are rejected. UI-added secondary mounts are runtime-only unless supplied through a startup setting.

Ask Chat to inspect before changing. File reads, search, Git status/diff, and structured inspection are observational. Writes, native execution, destructive Git operations, and remote effects use their own consequence policy.

Source and Git work

For source edits, Chat can inspect file identity and apply guarded patches that fail when the expected source changed. A conflict is evidence to reread; it is not permission to overwrite current work.

Git inspection distinguishes working-tree, staged, untracked, branch, and remote evidence. A local commit is not a push. Branch, stash, restore, checkpoint, and remote operations each retain their own scope and authority. Review exact paths and repository identity before approving a consequential operation.

Verification

Chat can run bounded build, lint, typecheck, test, or other native verification when requested and available. A command's exit status and captured output are execution evidence. Chat's explanation of why it failed remains inference. Cancellation or timeout does not imply rollback of prior effects.

Structured data

Use bounded inspection for JSON, YAML, CSV, spreadsheets, and SQLite rather than asking the model to guess from a filename. A preview or query result is scoped evidence, not proof about rows that were not returned. Credentials and unrelated row content should not be copied into Chat without need.

A reliable request pattern

State the target, desired outcome, important constraints, and the verification you expect. For consequential work, separate “inspect and propose” from “apply,” then review the resulting diff or execution evidence.