Chat with Otto

Chat is where you give Otto work, answer its questions and get the results.

Otto keeps one ongoing conversation with you. The desktop app, the web app, Telegram and WhatsApp all add to that same conversation, so Otto remembers what you said in any of them.

Send a message

Type in the message box and press Enter. Press Shift+Enter for a new line.

Attach files. Select Attach files, paste an image or drop files on the box. You can attach up to 20 files per message, each 15 MB or smaller. Otto gets a copy in its workspace and sees images directly.
Reply to a message. Hover over a message and select Reply to point Otto at it.

Keep talking while Otto works

You don't have to wait. The message box stays open while Otto works.

A short follow-up, such as "also check Friday", joins the task that's running. Otto reads it before its next step. A message with attachments, a reply to a specific message or a message from another app waits in line and runs as its own request.

flowchart LR
  new[You send a message] --> busy{{Is Otto<br/>working?}}
  busy -- no --> run[Otto starts on it]:::go
  busy -- yes --> plain{{Plain text<br/>from the same app?}}
  plain -- yes --> join[Joins the running task]:::accent
  plain -- no --> queue[Waits for its own turn]:::muted

Answer Otto's questions

When Otto needs a decision, an approval or your help in its browser, it asks and stops. Your next message is the answer, and Otto continues from there. For actions that need a yes or no, see Approvals.

Otto doesn't ask for passwords or card numbers in chat. It uses a saved login or a private form instead. See Vault.

Stop Otto

To stop Otto, select Stop next to the send button.

Stop ends the work that's running, including background runs, and cancels queued messages and open questions. It doesn't cancel your schedules. It can't undo something that already happened, such as an email that was already sent.

Otto never repeats a task on its own. If a task fails or Otto restarts in the middle of one, it tells you. Check what happened, then say "continue" if you want it to carry on.

Choose the model

The model picker above the message box shows the model Otto uses. Select it to choose another model from your connected providers. See Models.

See what a reply cost

Hover over Otto's final reply, or move keyboard focus to it, to see the time and the estimated model cost of that request. Price unavailable means part of the usage has no price, for example on a ChatGPT plan. See Spending and usage.

Replies go back where you wrote

Otto answers each request in the app you sent it from. A message from Telegram gets its reply on Telegram. Everything also appears in the chat in Otto's own app. See Telegram and WhatsApp.

Send feedback

Select Send feedback at the top of the chat, choose Bug or issue, Idea or Other, and describe what happened. Feedback goes to the Otto team at n8n.

By default it includes a diagnostic report of your recent chat, actions and their results. Select Review to see the report, or clear Include diagnostic report before you send.

Start with an empty chat

Otto has no button for a new conversation in normal use. When you run Otto from source in development mode (pnpm dev), Clear messages at the top of the chat starts an empty chat and stops its running tasks.

Starts fresh	Stays
The chat you see and Otto's working context	Your earlier messages, stored but no longer shown
The workspace folder	Memory, connected apps and Vault
The browser, with its temporary downloads	Saved browser sessions and saved browser routines
Running and queued work, which is cancelled	Tasks and schedules