# Testing with Chat

Use the editor's chat panel to test how an agent responds before you wire it into production traffic.

## Overview

The **Chat** panel is built into the agent editor. It lets you send messages, inspect the response as it streams in, and clear the session when you want to start over. Messages in this panel are not saved.

The chat panel always tests the **saved** version of the agent. Any unsaved changes you have made in the editor — such as a different system prompt or model — will not be reflected until you save the agent first.

## How do I open the chat panel? <a href="#open-chat-panel" id="open-chat-panel"></a>

1. Open an agent in the editor.
2. Click **Chat** in the header.

The panel opens on the right with the title **Chat**. If you have not sent any messages yet, Fetch Hive shows **Test your agent** and the note that messages are not saved.

## How do I test an agent message? <a href="#test-agent-message" id="test-agent-message"></a>

1. Type your message into **Type a message...**.
2. Press Enter or click the send button.
3. Wait for the response to stream into the panel.

Click **Clear** when you want to remove the current test conversation and start fresh.

## What can I learn from the chat output? <a href="#chat-output" id="chat-output"></a>

The panel shows the full conversation between you and the agent. When the agent reasons before answering, Fetch Hive can show a collapsible **Thinking** block. When the agent uses a tool, the panel can show tool cards such as **SERP API**, **Google Search**, **Vector Search**, or **GPT Search**.

When usage data is available, Fetch Hive also shows badges for token count and duration under the response. Use this view to see whether the agent answered directly, used tools, or needed extra reasoning before it replied.

For editor setup, see [Creating and Configuring](https://docs.fetchhive.com/agents/creating-and-configuring). If you want one agent to call another, see [Sub Agents](https://docs.fetchhive.com/agents/sub-agents).