Chat Manager

Nock has a second agent called Chat Manager. Nock’s main voice agent is for your general requests—questions, reminders, connected apps, and work it can do itself. Chat Manager is for the coding chats you run in Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or local Grok Build: it helps you find the right chat, send it a message, see what needs you, and answer the question that chat asked.

Chat Manager does not write code itself. It organizes conversations with your coding tools. A coding chat you open appears in its own chat window, while a task Nock starts may appear in Tasks. See Chat coordination for how these pieces fit together.

Talk or type to Chat Manager

• Mac: hold Option + Command and say what you want. Release the keys when you finish.
• Windows: hold Ctrl + Alt + Win and speak.
• A quick tap of the Chat Manager keys opens its view without recording. You can also click the Chat Manager row at the top of the Agents panel.
• Type in the message box at the bottom of its view when you prefer not to speak.

Nock’s own talk shortcut remains separate—Control + Option by default on Mac. On Windows, use Nock’s configured talk shortcut. A hold for either voice agent stops the other one from speaking; check the name in the notch before you continue.

Find and open a coding chat

In Chat Manager, click the chat picker beside the message box, or type / at the start of a message and enter part of a chat’s name. Chats that need your attention appear before working, done, and idle chats. Choose one by clicking it or using ↑ / ↓ and Enter. Esc closes the picker.

Selecting a chat opens that exact conversation in its own window. Chat Manager shows Opening… and then Opened… when it appears. If the chat is missing or cannot open, it shows an error instead of pretending the action succeeded. The Agents panel groups chats from your latest working day by project, keeps open/working/waiting chats visible, and places earlier closed chats under Older chats. Search includes that older history too. See Agents panel.

Give it an instruction

Say what you want the coding chat to do and identify it by its title, nickname, or project. Examples:

Tell the checkout chat to run its tests.

Ask the Codex chat in the shop project what is left.

Chat Manager sends your instruction to that chat; it does not silently turn an investigation into edits. If it is unsure which chat you mean, it asks you to choose. A chat open in your terminal is not selected by topic alone. Chat Manager asks before moving that same chat into Nock’s agent helper and sending your message.

Chats that live in the Codex app remain in Codex; Chat Manager can open the specific chat there but cannot send it a message from Nock. Chats open in the Claude app are not included in the list.

Answer a coding chat’s question

When a chat asks you to allow an action or choose an option, Chat Manager shows the question and its choices. Tell it which answer you mean—for example “the second one” or “no, skip it.” It checks that the question has not changed, then gives you two seconds to press Undo or Escape before it sends the answer. A plain “yes” is not a blanket permission; it chooses only the matching option shown in that question.

You can also answer from the chat’s own window. A question in a coding chat is different from an approval card from Nock’s main voice agent. See Chat Manager commands and Task approvals.

Inbox, Notes, and Back to Nock

• Inbox opens the coding-chat attention list for chats that finished, are asking, stopped with an error, or missed a message. A green dot means there is something new. See Inbox.
• Notes opens Settings → Agent → What Nock remembers, where Chat Manager keeps project notes and chat nicknames.
• Back to Nock returns the notch to Nock’s main voice agent immediately. With Settings → Agent → Chat Manager → Return to Nock automatically on (the default), the notch also returns to Nock after 45 seconds without activity. Drafts, typing, recording, and an answer in progress pause the timer.

To change the automatic return, open Settings → Agent → Chat Manager and switch Return to Nock automatically off. With it off, Chat Manager stays selected until you choose Back to Nock, open Nock’s chat, or start a new turn with Nock. This timer changes which agent the notch addresses; it does not close a coding chat or change the voice target of a focused Inbox card.

What it reads

To route a request, Chat Manager can use coding-chat titles, short summaries, recent lines, project names, and its own notes. It does not copy a chat into another conversation or open the same chat in two places. If you ask about what is on screen, Nock can use the referenced window or screen context; otherwise it does not need a screenshot to select a chat. See Memory and context and Privacy.

Chat Manager can think with your ChatGPT plan through Codex when you connect that option in Settings → Nock AI. Voice recognition uses the same speech-to-text setup as Nock. If the Manager cannot answer a voice request, you can still open chats from the picker when available.

Change the shortcut or voice

Change its keys in Settings → General → Shortcuts, in the Chat Manager row. Its shortcut cannot overlap Nock’s dictation or agent shortcut. Delete the shortcut to turn off its hold-to-talk; Reset to default restores it. Change the separate voice in Settings → Agent → Chat Manager.

For command examples, routing behavior, and safety limits, see What you can ask Chat Manager.