Message Scient
Use the composer to tell your selected AI what you want to understand, create, change, or run in the current project. Describe the outcome, important constraints, and any files or evidence it should use. What the AI can do is also controlled by the selected provider, available tools, and permission mode.
Send a message
Messages can contain up to 120,000 characters. If a draft is longer, Scient keeps it in the composer and shows how many characters need to be removed. Shorten the draft or split it into multiple messages, then send again in the same thread.
On servers that support direct uploads, images upload as soon as you add them. The send button becomes available after every upload finishes. Failed uploads can be retried or removed.
On web and desktop, HEIC and HEIF photos are automatically converted to JPEG when you drag them into the composer or paste them into a message.
Commands and skills
Type / to open the command menu. Type $ to find and add a skill. Skill rows show their source,
such as System, Personal, Project, or App.
By default, the / menu includes skills. To keep this menu command-only, turn off Show skills in
slash menu in Settings → General. Skill results use the /skill:Skill Name label and add the
same $name skill token to your message. The original skill name remains searchable. If the provider
also reports that skill as a native slash command, Scient hides the duplicate native entry and keeps
the /skill:Skill Name label.
Scient-managed skills are available from Settings → Skills on supported providers. Agent may
use lets the agent select a skill when the request clearly matches it. Only with $name keeps the
skill available only when you add its exact $name token. Skills provide instructions; they do not
add tools or permissions. Changes apply to the next message.
Project skills live at .scient/skills/<name>/SKILL.md inside an initialized Scient project. A
new valid project skill is available automatically on the next message and only in that project.
Use Settings → Skills → Project skills or the project’s Skills settings to choose Agent
access, $name only, or Deactivated. Agents can create these ordinary project files when
asked; your access choice remains controlled in Settings.
On desktop, press Cmd+Enter on macOS or Ctrl+Enter on Windows and Linux from a new thread to
start it in the background. Scient opens another new thread and shows an Open action for the
thread that started. The new thread keeps the selected workspace mode and base branch. If New
worktree is selected, each background thread creates its own worktree.
Continue with another provider
Forking lets you continue a conversation with a different provider or model
without changing the original. Use Fork beside a sent message or completed
response, use the compact Fork action in the model picker, or run /fork
to start from the latest completed response. In the new conversation, choose
the provider and model you want before sending.
New worktree is off by default, so the fork uses the current workspace without rewinding its files. Turn it on to create an isolated worktree at the selected checkpoint. The switch is unavailable when the project is not a Git repository or the fork point has no saved checkpoint.
Forking from a completed response keeps the conversation through that response. Forking from a sent user message places that message and its images in the new composer as an unsent draft. A temporary setup failure is safe to retry; Scient does not open a partially created conversation.
Queue or steer while an agent is working
When the current turn is running, ordinary Enter saves the complete message
and its images in that thread’s queue instead of interrupting the turn. Queued
messages appear above the composer and send in order, one turn at a time, after
the active turn becomes ready.
Use Cmd+Enter on macOS or Ctrl+Enter on Windows and Linux to request an
immediate steer instead. A steer is submitted to the active provider rather
than added to the queue. Provider command acceptance and actual same-turn
adoption are separate: a provider that cannot accept that prompt can report a
failure without turning the message into a silently queued item.
Queued rows can be reordered or deleted. Edit first removes the item from the queue and restores its text and readable images to an empty composer; it does not create an invisible second copy. A failed auto-send remains visible at the head of the queue with an explicit retry instead of being skipped or retried silently.
Queues belong to one server thread, survive app restarts, and are limited to 20 items and 64 MiB per thread. A local draft that has not created a server thread yet has no persistent queue.