Chat Loops

Chat interfaces (ChatGPT, Claude) let you have a conversation with an LLM.

The Loop

Unlike autocomplete, chat involves multiple turns:

1. You send a message
2. The model generates a response
3. You read and respond
4. Repeat

Each exchange extends the context. The model sees the full conversation history when generating each response.

Text In, Text Out

Chat generates text—code snippets, explanations, suggestions. It doesn’t act on your environment. You copy the code, paste it into your editor, and run commands yourself.

Agent loops add the ability to take actions: reading files, writing changes, running commands. Chat stays in the realm of text.