# Conversation mode

Conversation mode lets you talk to Nock without holding the agent shortcut. Turn it on when you want a spoken back-and-forth; Nock listens for your next turn, answers, and keeps listening until you turn the mode off or it reaches its idle limit.

## Turn it on and off

Open **Settings → Agent → Conversation mode** and switch it on. It starts off every time Nock launches; it never opens the microphone by itself. You can also say or type **“start conversation mode”** or **“stop conversation mode”** (or **“conversation mode on”** / **“conversation mode off”**). These commands must be the whole request, not just words inside another sentence.

When conversation mode is listening between turns, Nock's notch shows that state. Hold your usual Nock talk keys to turn conversation mode off and use a normal held-key request instead. Press **Escape** while Nock is listening or handling a turn to turn it off. It also turns off when the computer sleeps or locks, when a game comes to the front, and when a Mac display sleeps.

## Choose the pause and idle limit

In **Settings → Agent → Conversation mode**, set:

- **Answer after a pause of:** **0.6 s**, **0.8 s** (default), **1.2 s**, or **2 s**. This is how long you pause before Nock treats your words as a complete turn. Choose a longer pause if Nock answers before you finish; choose a shorter one for a quicker exchange.
- **Turn off after:** **1 min**, **2 min** (default), or **5 min** without speech. Nock announces when it turns the mode off.

## Interrupt a reply

Speak over Nock at your normal volume to cut off the current reply and give Nock a new turn. Work Nock already started continues in the background. Headphones give the most reliable interruption: on speakers, room echo or a long audio delay can make it harder for Nock to distinguish your voice from its own. Short sounds such as a cough or “mm-hm” do not normally interrupt; another voice in the room may be heard as speech.

While Nock is speaking, it does not turn its own voice, chimes, voice previews, or notch video audio into a new request. If you start speaking while Nock is still working but not speaking, the new request can replace the reply it was preparing; background workers already started continue.

## Microphone, context, and usage

While the mode is on, the microphone stays active for local voice detection. Only detected speech is turned into text; quiet gaps are not sent. The mode uses the same speech recognition setup as Nock's held-key turns, and speech is counted toward voice usage only while you are speaking, plus a short buffer around each turn. A minute of talking typically counts as about **1.2 to 1.6 minutes** of held-key speech, with more overhead for many short turns. See [Voice settings](/nock/voice-settings), [Privacy](/nock/privacy), and [Usage limits](/nock/usage-limits).

Conversation turns do not include text selected in another app or a picture of what you point at. **Mute when dictating** does not lower your music for conversation mode. See [Selected text](/nock/selected-text) and [Pointing](/nock/pointing) for the context available when you hold the normal agent keys.

Conversation mode does not answer Nock approval cards, coding-agent permission prompts, or setup interview questions, and it cannot turn on Autopilot. For an approval, hold the normal keys and answer clearly or use the card's buttons. See [Task approvals](/nock/task-approvals) and [Agent access](/nock/agent-access).

## Availability

Conversation mode is supported on **macOS and Windows** when Nock can capture the microphone and has a speech engine available. If the control is disabled, Settings explains what this computer needs. For on-device speech, download Nock's speech model in **Settings → Dictation**; the available cloud recognition option is there too. It is not available on Linux in this build.