> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cortex-foundation-add13747-droid-1a2462c9-cor-444-sanitize.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Chat guides

> Everything for Cortex Chat — conversations, projects, Library, plans, models, tools, research, images, and how a turn actually runs.

Cortex Chat is the conversation product at [cortex.foundation](https://cortex.foundation). Ask questions, write, research with citations, work with documents and images, and keep related work together in projects. Chat works before you sign in; projects, files, memory, plans, and connections belong to a signed-in account.

<Frame caption="Chat home in the dark theme — the composer with its model chip and the four starting points: Code, Research, Docs, Agents. Theme is under Settings → General.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-foundation-add13747-droid-1a2462c9-cor-444-sanitize/f_vF1T0UHRUAu9OO/images/product/chat-home-dark.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=f_vF1T0UHRUAu9OO&q=85&s=4fb5318427c0b21f9bb19b5393bfbf19" alt="Cortex Chat home in the dark theme" width="1280" height="800" data-path="images/product/chat-home-dark.png" />
</Frame>

## Start here

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" img="https://mintcdn.com/cortex-foundation-add13747-droid-1a2462c9-cor-444-sanitize/f_vF1T0UHRUAu9OO/images/banners/chat.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=f_vF1T0UHRUAu9OO&q=85&s=58d04c68b3d158056b0f237ec98ffb66" href="/chat/quickstart" width="1280" height="853" data-path="images/banners/chat.png">
    First message, attach a file, pick a model, keep the thread in a project.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Overview" icon="compass" href="/chat/overview">
    What Chat is for, what lives where in the sidebar, and when to switch to Code or Bot.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Accounts" icon="user" href="/getting-started/accounts">
    Guest allowance versus a signed-in member, and what each can do.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Core guides

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Projects" icon="folder" href="/chat/projects">
    Standing instructions, chats, and files kept together. Every chat in a project starts from its instructions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Library" icon="files" href="/chat/library">
    Everything you uploaded and everything the assistant produced. Files stay when a chat is deleted.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Plans" icon="list-checks" href="/chat/plans">
    Turn a long answer into steps you can tick off. Start one from any chat or from Planning.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Models and thinking" icon="cpu" href="/chat/models">
    Cortex 1 Mini, Cortex Teutonic-1, the Thinking level, and what happens at peak hours.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Tools and connectors" icon="plug" href="/chat/tools">
    Built-in tools, connected apps, GitHub, and MCP servers — and which product each connection reaches.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Sharing and teams" icon="users" href="/chat/sharing">
    Chat is per account. What that means for projects, plans, and threads.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Research and media

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Deep Research" icon="telescope" href="/chat/deep-research">
    Plan the questions, read live sources, write a cited report.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Image generation" icon="image" href="/chat/images">
    Cortex-Image-1 from the composer. Quota, not a paywall, on Free and Guest.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Origin check" icon="scan-search" href="/chat/origin-check">
    Ask whether attached media is authentic. Fails closed when it cannot run.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Voice" icon="mic" href="/chat/voice">
    Dictate with the mic and hear answers with Listen — when the deployment supports them.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Context that carries over

* [Memory](/chat/memory) — standing preferences and facts, reviewable and deletable one by one.
* [Canvases](/chat/canvases) — a document sidecar beside the conversation, drafted by Cortex or by you.

## Under the hood

* [How Chat works](/chat/how-it-works) — the tool loop, compaction, and Chat's round budget.
* [Streaming](/chat/streaming) — tokens, then tools, then the finished reply; what happens on a dropped connection.
* [Settings](/getting-started/settings) — theme, language, shortcuts, defaults, privacy.