Agents & Workflows
Cursor Side Chats: Branch a Question Without Derailing
A side chat is a full agent conversation that runs next to your main chat, with the parent's history copied in as hidden reference context. Open one with /side, by selecting code and choosing Ask in Side Chat, or with ⇧⌘S (⇧CtrlS on Windows). The parent keeps working uninterrupted.
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What is a side chat in Cursor?
Cursor's help page defines it exactly: "A side chat is a full agent conversation that runs next to your main chat. The parent's conversation history is copied in as reference context for the model." It is a durable child conversation — its own transcript, attached to the parent — built for the moment a tangent shows up mid-task and you don't want to pollute the main thread or stall the agent working in it.
- Knows your current task
- Side chat
- Yes — parent history rides along as hidden context
- New main chat
- No — starts cold
- Interrupts the parent
- Side chat
- No — the parent agent keeps working
- New main chat
- No, but you lose the thread
- Transcript
- Side chat
- Only the side conversation renders
- New main chat
- Fresh transcript
- Findings return trip
- Side chat
- @-mention the side chat from the main thread
- New main chat
- Manual copy-paste
| Side chat | New main chat | |
|---|---|---|
| Knows your current task | Yes — parent history rides along as hidden context | No — starts cold |
| Interrupts the parent | No — the parent agent keeps working | No, but you lose the thread |
| Transcript | Only the side conversation renders | Fresh transcript |
| Findings return trip | @-mention the side chat from the main thread | Manual copy-paste |
The context inheritance is the whole point — a tangent that already knows the situation.
This is covered hands-on in Agent Mode Foundations — 6 short modules, free to read.
How do I open a side chat?
- 1Type /side in the chat input — optionally with the question appended, e.g.
/side why does this migration lock the table? - 2Select code or a diff, then choose Ask in Side Chat from the selection menu — the selection becomes the side chat's subject.
- 3Press ⇧⌘S (Mac) or ⇧CtrlS (Windows/Linux).
Closing works by archiving: the X button archives the side chat rather than deleting it, so the tangent's findings stay retrievable. To pull a conclusion back into the main thread, @-mention the side chat there.
When should I use one — and what are the limits?
- Review-time questions — the agent produced a diff; ask "is this pattern safe with our auth middleware?" in a side chat instead of derailing the implementing conversation.
- Competing approaches — explore "what would this look like with a queue instead?" while the main agent finishes the current approach.
- Rabbit holes with a return ticket — debugging tangents get their own transcript, and the answer comes back via @-mention rather than scrolling.
- No nesting
- A side chat cannot spawn its own side chats — one level deep, by design.
- Local-only today
- Cloud AgentsAgents that run in a Cursor-managed virtual machine, check out the repo, do the work and open a pull request, then shut down, with no load on your laptop. Press Enter for the full definition. support is flagged as coming soon; until then side chats live in the desktop session.
- Follow-ups stay put
- Messages sent in the side chat remain there; nothing auto-merges into the parent.
- Hidden context is hidden
- The parent history informs the model but does not render in the side transcript — don't expect to scroll it.
Per cursor.com/help/ai-features/side-chats, checked 2026-07-16.
Plan modeA mode that makes no edits: it researches the codebase and produces an editable plan you review before any code changes. Press Enter for the full definition. structures the main task; a new chat tab starts a sibling task from cold; a side chat branches the current task with context intact. Pick by whether the tangent needs to know what you're in the middle of.
How do I find a side chat again later?
Side chats shipped in Cursor 3Cursor's agent-forward interface (also called the agent window or Glass), built to run and supervise many agents at once rather than edit one file. Press Enter for the full definition..11 alongside its retrieval half: conversation search. From the Agents Window, ⌘CtrlK searches across past agent transcripts (Cursor builds a local index that scales to thousands of conversations), and ⌘CtrlF searches within an open conversation with a match counter. Between the two, an archived side chat is a search away rather than a scroll away — which is what makes archiving-not-deleting a workflow instead of a graveyard.
Frequently asked questions
Does a side chat see my main conversation?
Yes — the parent's history is copied in as hidden reference context for the model. It informs answers but is not rendered in the side chat's transcript, which shows only the side conversation itself.
Can I bring side-chat findings back to the main chat?
Yes: @-mention the side chat from the main thread to pull its findings in as context. Follow-up messages otherwise stay in whichever chat you send them from.
Can a side chat open another side chat?
No — nesting is not supported. One level of branching, attached to the parent conversation.
Do side chats work with Cloud Agents?
Not yet — Cursor lists side chats as local-only with Cloud Agents support coming soon. Check the current help page before building a remote-supervision workflow around them.
Sources & last verified
Cursor ships frequently. Facts verified against primary sources on July 16, 2026.