# Layouts, tabs and chat history

Canonical: https://synthcrew.io/docs/layouts-history

## Choose a layout [#choose-a-layout]

**CAD + chat** keeps the engineering viewport and conversation side by side. Resize the chat dock to suit your model. **Focus** gives the conversation the available workspace. Closing chat returns to CAD-only inspection; reopening it must not create a new conversation or restart a run.

Before a task, confirm the project label. A project conversation belongs to its bound project. A **General** conversation is not permission to capture unrelated open documents. See [projects and conversations](/docs/workspace).

## Work with tabs [#work-with-tabs]

1. Use **New chat** or `Ctrl+T` while focus is inside chat.
2. Enter a distinct request and check the inherited project.
3. Switch tabs to compare conversations. Each keeps its own draft and activity.
4. Close the active tab with `Ctrl+W`. This removes the tab from view; it is not deletion of its saved conversation.
5. Use `Ctrl+Shift+T` to reopen a closed chat, or choose it in chat history.

Closing a tab is not the same as stopping its agent. Inspect running indicators and explicitly Stop a request when you mean to interrupt it.

## Find previous work [#find-previous-work]

Open **Chat history** from the chat header. Search for a conversation, check its project and reopen it. Renaming helps distinguish similar tasks. Archive is organizational; deletion is a separate destructive decision.

A saved assistant response is not evidence that candidate changes reached the original. Review the candidate and Apply records in that conversation. A later Plan answer did not create an older Agent candidate.

## Expected result and recovery [#expected-result-and-recovery]

Layout changes should preserve the selected conversation, draft, activity expansion and CAD dock arrangement. If a view looks wrong, preserve unsaved CAD work and change layout once; do not reset the entire application profile or delete conversation storage. Report the layout, window size and a safe screenshot to [support](/support).