Using the chat

Start a new chat

Click “New chat” in the sidebar to start a new conversation. The chat automatically uses your workspace’s default model, but you can switch the model at any time.

Choose an AI model

Via the model selector in the chat area you choose which AI model processes your messages. The available models are defined by your administrator.

Model information

Each model shows you:

| Information | Description | | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------ | | Name | Name of the model (e.g. Claude 3.5 Sonnet) | | Provider | Vendor (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral) | | Location | Where the model is operated (e.g. EU, USA) | | Speed | Relative response speed | | Quality | Relative response quality |

Data protection labels

Watch for the colored badges on each model:

| Label | Meaning | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | EU-Sovereign | The model runs on EU-sovereign infrastructure. Full data control within the EU | | GDPR | GDPR-compliant. Data is processed exclusively in the EU. No data outflow to third countries | | Global | Servers outside the EU. Data outflow to third countries possible |

Tip: When you work with confidential company data, choose a model with the EU-Sovereign or GDPR label. More on this under Data protection & data sovereignty.

Switch model

You can switch the model at any time within a chat. Just click the model selector and choose another model. All subsequent messages are then handled by the new model.

Using files in the chat

You can upload files directly into the chat so that the AI can analyze and process their content.

How it works

Drag & drop: drag files directly into the chat window
Click: click the upload icon in the input field

Limits

A maximum of 5 files per message
Maximum file size: 50 MB per file (can vary by workspace)
All common file formats are supported

Manage attached files

After upload, you see the attached files with name and size below the input field. You can remove individual files before sending.

Examples of use:

“Summarize this PDF”
“Analyze the numbers in this Excel file”
“Translate this document into English”

Manage your chat history

Overview

All your chats appear in the sidebar, grouped by time:

Today
Yesterday
This week
Last week
Older periods

Scroll down to load older chats.

Search chats

Use the search field at the top of the sidebar to search chats by keyword. For a full search across all chats, click “Search all chats”.

Rename a chat

Right-click a chat in the sidebar
Select “Rename”
Enter the new name and confirm with Enter

Delete a chat

Right-click a chat in the sidebar
Select “Delete thread”
Confirm the deletion in the dialog

Caution: Deleted chats cannot be restored.

You can share a chat with colleagues in your company, either via a link or directly with specific people. Shared chats are read-only by default: anyone with access can read the entire conversation.

Create and send a link

Open the chat you want to share
Click the share icon in the top right of the chat header
Select “Create link” and copy the link using the copy icon
Send the link, for example by email or chat

Instead of sending a link, you can share the chat directly with specific people. Open the share dialog, click “Add person” and search for the colleague by name or email. The person then appears in the access list and finds the chat right away in their sidebar under “Shared with me”, even without a link.

As soon as you add someone, they immediately get a notice that you shared a chat with them and can open it straight from that notice. The notice stays visible until they dismiss it, so it still reaches them if they were away from the screen.

Choose read or edit: For each added person you can choose between “Read” and “Edit” in the access list. “Read” is the default: the person sees the conversation but cannot write. With “Edit” they may write in the chat and stop responses in progress. You can change the choice at any time; it takes effect immediately.

Revoke access

Open the dialog again via the share icon. Use the remove icon next to a person to take away one individual’s access. With “Revoke access” you disable the link and remove all access at once. After that, no one has access anymore, not even with a link you already sent.

What the other person sees

The shared chat lands permanently in the other person’s sidebar under “Shared with me”, so it’s easy to find again. With read-only access the conversation is shown with a “Shared by …” note and the input field is locked.

Find your shared chats again

You won’t lose track of the chats you share: they appear in your sidebar in the “Shared by me” group, right next to “Shared with me”. That way you can see at a glance which conversations you have shared. Such a chat also carries a “Shared by you” note with a small two-person icon, so you can easily tell it apart from your other chats.

Follow along live

If you keep writing in the shared chat, the other person sees new messages and answers in real time, without reloading the page.

Who has access?

Sharing works only within your company; external people get no access. Treat the link as confidential: anyone who has the full link can read the conversation. The plain chat link without sharing, i.e. the normal address in the address bar, grants no access.

If you need help with a specific chat, create a link via the share function as described above and send it together with your request to support@9brains.de. That way support can open the exact conversation and follow your issue directly on the actual history, instead of reconstructing it from a description. Support only gets read access to this one chat, and you can revoke the share at any time via “Revoke access”.

Share externally (read-only). Sometimes you want to share a chat with someone outside your company, for example a client or a service provider without a 9brains account. That is what external sharing is for: a PIN-protected link that lets outside people follow the chat live but not write in it.

Create an external link: here is how it works:

Open the share dialog via the share icon
Switch from “Internal” to “External” at the top
Set a PIN of 4 to 8 digits and pass it to the external person separately from the link
Click “Create external link” and then “Copy link”
Send the link and the PIN separately, for example the link by email and the PIN through a different channel

Below the link, the “Valid until” line together with the date shows how long the access stays valid. The link expires automatically after 30 days and becomes invalid afterwards.

End external access. Use “Disable external access” to switch the external link off again at any time. After that no one can get in through this link anymore, not even with the PIN you already sent. If you later create a new external link, the link, PIN and expiry date are all reset, so an old link stays permanently invalid.

What the external person sees. Whoever opens the link lands on a page titled “Shared chat” with the note “Read-only · shared via 9brains”. First the person has to enter the PIN; only then does the conversation become visible. If you keep writing in the chat, they see new messages in real time but cannot type anything themselves. After too many wrong PIN attempts, entry is locked for 15 minutes. If the link has expired or you disabled access, a note appears instead saying the shared chat is no longer available.