Conversations

Conversations are the web review surface for plain-language notes, questions, and proposed writes. Text-in messages appear in the farm conversation with a via SMS source so the capture channel is visible.

Start a conversation

  1. Open Chats.
  2. Choose New chat.
  3. Send a plain-language note or question.

On a phone, the header, message box, and Send stay reachable when the keyboard is open. Sending or receiving a message scrolls only the conversation; it never moves the whole screen. If you scroll up to read older messages, a new reply leaves your place alone until you scroll back to the bottom (or send a note).

Quick Entry uses the same farm conversation flow from other dashboard pages. With a farm selected, open More and choose Quick entry; the desktop rail's More row, the phone header or bottom More control, and the bottom More tab all reach the directory.

Find a conversation

With more than five loaded chats, use Filter chats to narrow the list by name. This filters loaded chats only. The filter stays visible while active, even if deleting a chat shortens the list. Erase the filter to show all loaded chats again.

Your name and personal plan stay visible at every width: on phones as plain text at the start of More → Account & help, and on the desktop pinned to the bottom-left of the rail. On desktop, select that control for Account settings or Billing; on phones, use the Settings and Billing rows in Account & help. Local installations show Local without cloud Billing.

What happens after a note

Ranch.Bot can read the farm's animals, identifiers, groups, records, and approved Farm Memory to answer a question. When a request needs a write, Ranch.Bot:

  1. interprets the note;
  2. shows the proposed change;
  3. pauses before running it; and
  4. waits for you to save, change, or cancel the proposal.

The button names the proposed action: Save record for a new record, Save changes for an edit, or Add animal for a new animal. Choose Cancel to leave the proposal unsaved. An ordinary record proposal also offers Change so you can describe a correction without leaving the conversation. After it is resolved you see a short receipt: Record saved with a link to the record, Not saved after a cancellation, or Replaced by a correction when you changed it. The receipt is the confirmation that a write happened; the draft shown before it is not a saved record.

On a short screen the conversation scrolls as one column so the review controls stay reachable; the message box sits at the end of that column instead of staying pinned. On a taller screen the messages scroll on their own with the message box pinned below. Resizing between the two keeps your unsent text and the focused control.

Review the proposal rather than relying on the assistant's summary alone. Check identifiers, dates, record types, and details against what happened.

For dates such as “today” or “yesterday,” Ranch.Bot needs your event’s timezone or calendar date. It may ask you to clarify. Later details keep the original event date unless you correct it. Finish reviewing one event date before proposing a separate event with a different date. For a group event, individual animals do not need to be added first. If an identifier matches more than one animal, clarify which one you mean.

If an animal proposal includes an inventory status, that status appears before the other details. Changing inventory status alone does not save a dated sale or death record.

Corrections

For an ordinary record proposal, keep talking in the message box. A plain follow-up such as “Actually, yesterday” is understood as a change to the draft. You can also choose Change to point at a particular draft: it focuses the message box and shows a removable Changing: {record} · {date} label. A question or an unrelated note is still treated as a question or a new event, not an edit. Nothing is saved until you approve the replacement. Once your change is accepted, the original draft can no longer be saved. The revised draft still needs your approval. If the replacement needs more detail, Ranch.Bot asks; if it cannot prepare one, choose Try again to continue in the same message box. If AI policy or thread consent turns off while a change is being prepared, the correction is cancelled: you see The correction was cancelled. Nothing was saved. Send a new note. and there is nothing to retry. A cancelled correction never revives the draft it replaced.

The replacement is a new draft that always needs approval. Check it, including any identifiers, dates, and descriptions you did not change, before saving. The latest reply carries the complete revised card; the older card becomes a Replaced by a correction receipt that links forward.

If an already saved record needs to change, describe the correction, review the new proposal, and select Save changes. Ranch.Bot retrieves the saved record before offering a correction. If it is unavailable, clarify the intended record instead of approving a different one. Recent changes may also have an Undo action.

Save, Cancel, and Change need a connection. If you are offline your message is not sent or queued; reconnect, then send. The message box keeps your unsent text and the draft you selected for the current tab, but reconnect never sends it for you.

If a send is interrupted, Ranch.Bot does not guess whether it arrived. Reopen the chat to check the exact message you sent. If it was accepted, you see the reply and the box clears. The accepted message and its saved request are cleared even when the reply arrives after you leave the chat; a newer typed message or a newer draft selection in the same farm and chat stays, and other chats are untouched. If it was not, you can send the same message again. Newer typing stays in the box and is not sent until the earlier message is resolved. While a preview draft is waiting for your review, an unrelated or unclear follow-up leaves the draft and your message allowance unchanged, and a correction only counts once you accept your change.

When streaming is available, the reply appears as Ranch.Bot writes it instead of after the whole answer is ready. Saving a draft still shows progress only until the save finishes; the receipt and any links appear after it is saved, never before. If the connection drops while Ranch.Bot is working, the work continues on the farm side and nothing is sent twice. Reopen the chat or choose Check status to see the result before trying again. If the result is still being saved, the card says so and stays locked; if it cannot be checked, it says the result is unknown instead of guessing, and Check status remains available.

Public and private chats

Public chats are visible to farm members. On a Solo plan every new chat is public: choosing New chat opens it immediately with no privacy prompt. Private chats are a Team feature; a Team farm owner can enable private threads under Farm Settings, and the creator then chooses Public (the default) or Private when starting a chat.

A private conversation is visible only to its creator, but farm records created from it remain farm data and are visible to members with access to those records.

Text-in and web chat

  • Text-in needs cellular SMS service and must come from the registered, opted-in phone.
  • Web Conversations need a data connection.
  • SMS supports /farm, /list, and /resume. Other slash commands, including /new, return guidance and leave your draft unchanged. Text HELP for options; use New chat on the web to start a separate conversation.
  • Texted photos are stored for the account, but are not currently shown in the conversation or extracted into records.
  • Replies may take time because the agent turn runs on the server before the result appears.
  • If processing a text fails, Ranch.Bot sends an error reply asking you to try again or use the app. Nothing saves without your confirmation.

An idle conversation checks for new messages every 30 seconds. While a reply is being written, it checks more often for up to a minute. If loading fails, automatic checks stop: use Try again for messages, or refresh to check chat access. If requests were rate-limited, wait before retrying.

Follow Getting Started for the complete SMS-first flow.