---
title: "Chat"
description: "Ask an assistant in the app, pick a query mode, follow a conversation and see what each answer cost."
canonical: "https://lookio.app/docs/guides/chat"
updated: "2026-11-08"
---

# Chat

In **Chat**, you ask your assistants questions. It is the quickest way to test a resource and an assistant before you automate anything.

## Ask a question

Pick an assistant, write a question and send it. The assistant searches its resources, reads the best passages and writes the answer. The chat shows each phase: searching, reading, answering. The answer appears word by word.

![The Chat with conversations grouped by assistant on the left and an answer about credit notes with numbered citations on the right](/docs/images/app/chat-answer.webp)

_Your conversations on the left, grouped by assistant. Each number in the answer is a citation._

Each number in the answer points to a passage it used. **sources** under the answer lists them all. See [Citations](/docs/guides/citations).

## Choose a query mode

The **Query mode** menu sets how Lookio answers and what the answer costs.

| Mode  | Credits | Use it for                            |
| ----- | ------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Flash | 30      | The default. Fast answers.            |
| Eco   | 10      | Questions that can wait a little.     |
| Deep  | 80      | Complex questions with several parts. |

The price is fixed. A long answer or an answer that finds nothing costs the same. Each answer shows its mode, its cost and its duration. See [Core concepts](/docs/get-started/concepts#query-modes).

## Conversations

Lookio stores your conversations, grouped by assistant. Only you see them.

**Archive or restore a conversation**

**Archive**, in a conversation's menu, removes it from your list. It keeps the messages. **Archived chats** opens the archive. **Restore** brings a conversation back.

**Delete a conversation**

**Delete** removes the conversation and its messages permanently. The credits it spent stay in Usage.

- A conversation stays with one assistant. To ask another assistant, start a new chat.
- A follow-up question uses the last six messages as context: three questions and their answers.
- When an assistant is deleted, its conversations move to **Deleted assistants**. You can read them but not continue them.
- If an admin removes your access to an assistant, you can no longer open its conversations.

## When there is no answer

If the resources hold nothing relevant, the assistant says so. The question is charged like any other. You cannot ask an assistant that reads no resource: the chat tells you and sends nothing. If you expected an answer, see [Troubleshooting](/docs/guides/troubleshooting#no-answer-found).

## Chat from the API

Lookio keeps every API answer in a conversation. Continue it with `conversation_id`.

- With a personal connection (the CLI after `lookio auth login`, or an MCP client), the conversations are your own chats, like in the app.
- With an API key, the conversations go to the workspace [logs](/docs/guides/logs).

See [Conversations and end users](/docs/guides/conversations-and-end-users), [Ask an assistant](/docs/api/assistants/query-assistant) and [Streaming](/docs/developers/streaming).

## Install Lookio as an app

You can install Lookio on a computer or a phone. It then opens in its own window, from the Dock, the taskbar or the home screen. It is the same Lookio, always up to date.

**Chrome, Edge**

**Install** in **Manage account**, under **App**, or the install icon in the address bar.

**Safari on a Mac**

**File**, then **Add to Dock**.

**iPhone, iPad**

**Share**, then **Add to Home Screen**.

**Android**

**Install** in **Manage account**, or **Add to Home screen** in the browser menu.

Lookio suggests the install from your second visit. **Not now** hides the suggestion for a week. A second **Not now** hides it permanently. The button stays in **Manage account**.