Chat
Terminal carries text chat so an exercise does not need a second application beside it. A chat group is a document an administrator creates in Settings → Groups; its messages live in Mainframe, reach every Terminal at once, and stay for as long as Settings → Comms says.
Groups
Section titled “Groups”Open a group with the palette (Chat: Ops), the Chat panel, or a group chip inside any message. One Chat panel shows one group; the chip in its toolbar switches it, and any number of Chat panels may be open on any groups. A panel remembers its group in a saved layout.
You see a group when your role’s chat.read grant covers it and write when chat.write does (see Access). Without chat.write the composer reads Read only and rows offer Copy only. A group whose grant you lose disappears from the chip after your next reconnect; a group an administrator deletes disappears everywhere and its saved panels retain their selection and read <Deleted group>.
Writing
Section titled “Writing”Enter sends, Shift+Enter breaks a line. @ at a word start opens the mention picker: people online, aircraft, sensors and detections, markings, missions, captures and clips, the current time or playhead, coordinates, and other groups. A mention renders as a chip that selects, opens or scrubs to its object; a user mention toasts that person. ArrowUp in an empty composer opens your last message for editing; Escape closes it.
Typing shows as Jonas is typing… under the messages for a few seconds and is never stored.
What you have typed in a group’s composer stays there across a reload or a switch to another group and back — one draft per group, in this browser — and a send clears it. The reply target and queued files are not kept.
Send to Chat
Section titled “Send to Chat”Anything that can be mentioned can be sent to a group from where it is, without typing an @. Send … to Chat is one menu node: with one group you may write to it is a direct item (Send Location to Chat · Ops); with several it is a submenu of them; without any it is absent. Choosing a group opens (or reveals) a Chat panel on it with the mention already in the composer, focused — nothing is sent until you press Enter.
| Where | What it sends |
|---|---|
| Map, right-click on the ground | the coordinates (an MGRS chip that centres the map there) |
| Map, right-click on an aircraft, a detection, a sensor, a route or a marking | that object (a detection also carries its coordinates) |
| An aircraft’s menu (Fleet rows, the map, the Fleet menu) | the aircraft |
| Markings panel rows and the map | the marking |
| Captures toolbar | the selected still or clip |
| Selection panel, every block | the selected object (chips, or in the block’s … menu) |
| Video, right-click on the ground | the ground point under the cursor |
| The menubar clock, right-click | the moment shown: now, or the playhead in review |
| The timeline bar, right-click | the moment under the cursor |
The palette adds Write in Chat (asks for the group, opens it with a focused composer) and Send Selection to Chat (every selected object in one message). A time chip scrubs the console to its moment; a capture or clip chip opens it.
The paperclip, a paste, or a drop onto the panel queues files above the composer; send posts them with the text (or on their own). Images up to 1 MB (jpeg, png, webp, gif) render inline and open full size in a new tab. Every other file — and every larger image — is a row with its name and size and a download that keeps the original filename. Uploads are limited by Settings → Comms → Upload limit (25 MB); a refused file shows too-large · 25 MB on the strip and never blocks the text.
Replies, reactions, edits, deletion
Section titled “Replies, reactions, edits, deletion”Hover a row for React, Reply, Copy, Edit (yours) and Delete (yours, or any message for an administrator). A reply quotes the original’s author and first line; clicking the quote scrolls to it. An edit shows edited. Delete asks nothing: the row reads <Deleted message> for everyone and your toast offers Undo for six seconds. Replies also show <Deleted message>; they do not retain the deleted text.
Notifications
Section titled “Notifications”A message that mentions you, or replies to one of yours, toasts Jonas · Ops with its first line and Open — unless a Chat panel showing that group is on a visible page. Ordinary messages never toast; there are no sounds, badges or unread counts.
Retention
Section titled “Retention”Messages older than Settings → Comms → Keep messages (90 days) are deleted daily with their files. Deleting a group removes its owned messages and files. Preservation holds stop automatic expiry; they do not undo explicit deletion.
Deliberately absent
Section titled “Deliberately absent”No read receipts, threads, pins, bookmarks, search, direct messages, forwarding, link previews, encryption, gifs or stickers.
Replay
Section titled “Replay”Chat follows the global playhead: messages appear when sent, and edits and reactions appear at their recorded times. Moving backward restores the earlier state. All chat panels are read-only in replay, including uploads, reactions, and Send to Chat; local drafts remain for your return to live. Historical messages do not generate mention notifications or typing indicators.
Deletion applies at every replay time. Deleted messages show <Deleted message>;
deleted groups disappear from pickers, while a restored panel still selecting
one shows <Deleted group>. Loading, connection failure and lack of access are
separate states. Older messages may show an incomplete-history notice because
revisions from before recording was enabled cannot be reconstructed.
To chat live while reviewing, use a different browser. Linked windows keep their existing shared replay mode.