# Forking conversations

> Branch a conversation from any reply and keep both timelines.

Source: https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/forking
Language: en

Forking copies a conversation up to a chosen reply and opens the copy as a separate chat. The original is untouched and keeps going; the branch goes wherever you take it. Use it when you want to see how else a scene could have played out without losing the version you already have.

## Making a fork \[#making-a-fork]

### Reveal the message toolbar \[#reveal-the-message-toolbar]

Hover the character's message on desktop, or tap it on a touch device.

### **More** → **Fork from here** \[#more--fork-from-here]

Forking is offered on the character's messages only — you cannot branch from one of your own. Signing in is required.

### Confirm \[#confirm]

The **Fork Conversation** dialog explains what will happen; **Fork Chat** creates the branch and opens it.

There is no name field. The branch is titled after its parent with `(Fork)` appended, or `Forked Chat` if the original had no title. Rename it afterwards from your chat list — see [Managing conversations](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/managing-conversations).

## What the branch inherits \[#what-the-branch-inherits]

A fork is a real copy, not a pointer into the original.

| Copied                        | Detail                                                                                                                                 |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Messages up to the fork point | Including the alternative replies behind the variant switcher, re-keyed so later regenerations in one branch never appear in the other |
| Images                        | Physically duplicated in storage, so deleting either chat cannot break the other's pictures                                            |
| Conversation summaries        | Every summary whose range fits inside the copy, with its consolidation lineage intact                                                  |
| Installed plugins             | With their configuration, enabled state and order                                                                                      |
| The setup                     | Scenario, moment, [persona](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/personas), instant-chat mode and chat language                         |
| The cast                      | The roster **as it stood at the fork point** — members who joined later are not in the branch                                          |

Nothing after the fork point comes across. You can fork a fork.

> **Forking does not branch memory.** Saved memories belong to you and the
> character, not to a chat, so both timelines read and write the same store —
> what a character learns in the branch is immediately known in the original,
> and in every other chat with that character. Only the conversation summaries
> are per-chat and genuinely copied. See
> [How memory works](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/memory).

## Finding your branches \[#finding-your-branches]

Open your chat list, use a conversation's \*\*⋯\*\* menu and choose **Timeline**. The **Chat Timeline** dialog lists every conversation you have had with that character — counted as `{total} conversations, {forks} forks` — marking which rows are forks and which one you are in.

There is no branch switcher in the chat header, and no way to mark a branch as the canonical one. Branches are ordinary conversations: they appear in your chat list, they can be renamed, archived, exported and deleted individually.

## Cost \[#cost]

Forking itself is free, and a message costs the same in a branch as it does anywhere else. What a fork inherits is the *context*: the summary chain comes across intact, so a branch of a 500-message conversation starts with the same per-turn context — and the same per-message price — as the conversation it came from.

## Limits \[#limits]

* Assistant messages only.
* Signing in is required.
* You cannot fork a conversation whose character has since been deleted.

## Related \[#related]

* [How memory works](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/memory) — what is shared across branches and what is not
* [Managing conversations](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/managing-conversations) — renaming, archiving and deleting branches
* [Scenarios](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/scenarios) — a fork keeps its parent's scenario and cannot change it
* [Group chats](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/group-chats) — how a fork rewinds the cast