Queue and Steer Messages While Ziva Works

You don’t have to wait for Ziva to finish before you type. While a task is running, the composer gives you two ways to send:

Use steer to change direction: “use coyote time too”, “skip the menu for now”, “that file is the wrong one”. Use queue for the next thing to do once this task is done.

What you’ll see

Messages you’ve sent but Ziva hasn’t read yet wait in a small list at the bottom of the chat, marked Queued or Steering. A steering message shows up in the chat, marked Steered, only once Ziva has actually read it, at the point where it read it.

Each waiting message has buttons:

• Steer (on a queued message): steer the running task with it instead of waiting for the task to end.
• Send now (on a steering message): stop the current step and send your steering messages right away. Use this when the current step is long, like a playtest or a subagent. Changes Ziva already made stay.
• Edit: move the message back into the composer to change it.
• ✕: remove it.

Things to know

• A steer waits for the current step. Ziva never cuts a running tool short for a steer. If that step is a long playtest, the steer waits for it, unless you press Send now.
• Several steers go together. If you send two steers during one step, Ziva reads both at once.
• Stop brings them back. Pressing Stop puts every waiting message back in the composer so nothing is lost. The same happens if the task ends in an error.
• A steer can’t change the task’s settings. A running task keeps the model, mode, tools, project memory and MCP servers it started with. If you change any of them, Cmd/Ctrl+Enter queues the message instead, and the composer tells you.
• Undo and Retry. Undoing or retrying a message removes its steers along with it and puts their text back in the composer. A steered message itself can’t be undone on its own.
• Answer first. If Ziva is waiting for you to approve a tool or answer a question, steers you already sent wait until you answer. Skipping a question, or letting it skip itself after 5 minutes, keeps them too.

Slash commands while Ziva works

Built-in commands that only change Ziva itself run right away, even mid-task: /settings, /account, /export-logs, /new, /model, /plan, /ask and /default. The model and mode commands apply to your next message. Skills and custom commands queue or steer like any message.

/compact waits in the list and runs when the task finishes, because compacting would otherwise stop the task.

Plans and privacy

Queueing and steering work with every model and plan. A steering message is sent to the same model as the task it steers, and counts as part of that task, not as a new message.

Troubleshooting

• My steer was queued instead. You changed the model, mode or a tool setting after the task started. Switch back, or let it run as the next message.
• “Already delivered” when I tried to edit or remove a steer. Ziva read it a moment earlier; it’s in the chat now.
• Cmd/Ctrl+Enter sends a normal message. Steering only applies while Ziva is working. When Ziva is idle, both keys send.

See also

• Slash commands
• Usage limit best practices