The focus pane

A conversation is words, but some things are easier to look at than to read about — a file an agent just wrote, a chart, a running preview of an app. The focus pane is the panel that opens beside your chat to show exactly that. (You’ll sometimes see it called the omni window — same thing.) The chat stays on one side, the thing you’re looking at on the other, so you can keep talking while it’s open.

Opening something in it

Two kinds of things open in the focus pane:

A file — and it’s rendered properly, not dumped as text. Markdown reads as formatted markdown, code is syntax-highlighted, and images, PDFs, spreadsheets, Word documents, CSVs, and HTML all get a real preview. If a file type has no preview, the pane offers a Download button instead.
A local URL or preview — like a dev server or a page running on your box — shown live in the pane.

Most of the time an agent opens these for you while it works (see below). Each one also carries its own handle: a file shows a Download button, and a URL shows Open in browser to pop it open in a real tab.

One pane, many tabs

The focus pane holds more than one thing at a time. Each file or URL becomes a tab across the top, so a session can gather the spec, the screenshot, and the live preview side by side. Click a tab to switch to it; click the small × on a tab to close just that one. Opening the same file or URL again reuses its tab rather than piling up duplicates. A Refresh button reloads whatever’s showing — handy for a preview that’s changed underneath you.

Popping a tab out

Want something off on its own, beside your real screen? Hit Pop out and the active tab opens in its own browser window. The pane then shows a “Focus pane popped out” note with a Bring back button, so you always know where it went. (Pop out is a desktop feature — it needs a window to open into.)

Fullscreen and closing

The fullscreen button expands the pane to fill the screen when you want a closer look; press it again, or hit Esc, to come back. To put the whole thing away, close the pane — on a phone you can also just swipe it down. Closing the last open tab closes the pane for you.

How agents show you things

When an agent wants you to see something, it opens it into your focus pane for you — that’s how “here’s the report” or “the preview is running” turns into something on screen instead of a path you have to go find.

This is a show-only surface, and you stay in charge of it. An agent can open a tab, but you decide what to keep, pop out, or close. And the pane only ever shows local things — your own files and previews running on your box. Anything out on the public web comes to you as a normal link in the chat, which opens in your own browser where you’re already signed in.