---
title: "Side Chats and Conversation Search"
description: "An update adds side chats for exploring tangents alongside a main agent conversation without interrupting it. Each side chat is a durable, full agent conversation with main-chat context, can be revisited, followed up on, and at-mentioned back into the main thread. In the Agents Window, users can search agent transcripts through Cmd+K using a local index designed to scale to thousands of conversations, or search within a conversation with Cmd+F. Redesigned project and repo pickers support creating projects and connecting GitHub, GitLab, or Azure DevOps without leaving the picker, with search scoped to the current location. New cloud agent hooks expose prompts, responses, thinking, subagents, compaction, and turn completion for observation and control."
---

# Side Chats and Conversation Search

[Cursor](https://yomu.fyi/company/cursor) · Jul 10, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

An update adds side chats for exploring tangents alongside a main agent conversation without interrupting it. Each side chat is a durable, full agent conversation with main-chat context, can be revisited, followed up on, and at-mentioned back into the main thread. In the Agents Window, users can search agent transcripts through Cmd+K using a local index designed to scale to thousands of conversations, or search within a conversation with Cmd+F. Redesigned project and repo pickers support creating projects and connecting GitHub, GitLab, or Azure DevOps without leaving the picker, with search scoped to the current location. New cloud agent hooks expose prompts, responses, thinking, subagents, compaction, and turn completion for observation and control.

## Context

The release focuses on maintaining flow across agent work: parallel side conversations, searchable transcripts, more capable project and repository selection, and hooks for observing or controlling cloud-agent conversations.

## Approach / What changed

Users create side chats with /side, /btw, or the plus button, while a local search index supports transcript search from Cmd+K and Cmd+F searches within a conversation. The redesigned pickers keep project creation and repository connections in one place, and new cloud-agent hooks expose conversation and execution events for observation and control.

## Takeaways

- Side chats inherit context from the main chat and remain durable conversations that can be revisited or brought back into the main thread with an at-mention.
- Transcript search uses a local index that scales to thousands of conversations; Cmd+F also supports match navigation and a counter within an open conversation.
- Cloud-agent hooks now cover prompts, responses, thinking, subagents, compaction, and turn completion, enabling observation, subagent control, and self-correcting loops.

## FAQ

### How do side chats relate to the main agent conversation?

A side chat starts with context from the main chat and runs alongside it. It is a full, durable agent conversation that can be followed up on, revisited, and at-mentioned back into the main thread.

### How does conversation search work?

Cmd+K searches agent transcripts in the Agents Window using a local index intended to scale to thousands of conversations. Cmd+F searches inside an existing conversation, with match navigation and a counter while scrolling.

### What can the new cloud-agent hooks control or observe?

The hooks expose prompts, responses, thinking, subagents, compaction, and turn completion. They can be used to observe output and reasoning, control subagents, and build self-correcting loops.

**Tags:** [AI Agents](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-agents), [Automation](https://yomu.fyi/topic/automation), [Search](https://yomu.fyi/topic/search)

- Source: [Cursor](https://cursor.com/changelog/side-chat)
- Source URL: https://cursor.com/changelog/side-chat
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-19T10:36:22.209Z

[Read original post](https://cursor.com/changelog/side-chat)