# Managing conversations

> Rename, search, archive, export and delete your chats.

Source: https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/managing-conversations
Language: en

Every conversation you have ever started is kept. This page covers finding them again, tidying them up, and getting them out of Reverie.

## Your chat list \[#your-chat-list]

Conversations live on the History page at `/app/chats`, under the **Chats** tab — **Stories** and **Novels** have their own tabs beside it. A character's own page also lists the chats you have had with them.

| Control                           | What it does                                                         |
| --------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Search titles and messages...** | Matches text in conversation titles *and* in the messages themselves |
| **Conversation status**           | Switches between **Active** and **Archived**                         |
| Row **⋯** menu                    | **Rename**, **Archive** or **Restore**, **Timeline**, **Delete**     |
| **Delete active**                 | Bulk-deletes every active conversation                               |

**Timeline** opens the branch view for that character — see [Forking conversations](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/forking).

## Renaming \[#renaming]

**⋯ → Rename** opens **Name this conversation**. Give it something you will recognise later; leave the field empty and the list falls back to the character's name.

## Archiving \[#archiving]

**Archive** moves a conversation out of the active list without deleting anything, and **Restore** brings it back. Archived conversations keep all their messages, and two things treat them differently from active ones:

* **Delete active** leaves them alone.
* Characters never send [proactive messages](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/proactive-messages) into an archived conversation.

That makes archiving the right tool for a chat you want to keep but stop hearing from.

## Deleting \[#deleting]

> **Deleting a conversation is permanent.** It removes the conversation and
> every message in it, and it cannot be undone. **Delete active** does the same
> thing to every active conversation at once — archived ones are kept, but
> nothing else is recoverable.

You can delete one conversation from its row's **⋯** menu, or from inside it: **Chat Settings → Chat Management → Delete This Chat**.

## Exporting \[#exporting]

**Chat Settings → Chat Management → Export Chat** opens **Export Chat History**, with four formats:

| Format         | Best for                                 |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| **JSONL**      | Re-importing — SillyTavern compatible    |
| **Markdown**   | Readable backup, easy to paste elsewhere |
| **Plain text** | A simple transcript                      |
| **HTML**       | A page for reading or printing to PDF    |

The HTML export is a styled transcript with avatars, timestamps, print styling and a dark-mode variant that follows the reader's system setting. Images in the conversation are linked from Reverie rather than embedded, so the saved page needs a connection to show them.

## Importing \[#importing]

**Chat Settings → Chat Management → Import Chat** brings a conversation over from another platform. Two constraints matter:

* The target chat must be **empty** — "Import only works on an empty chat."
* The file must be `.jsonl`, `.json`, `.txt` or `.md`, and at most **10 MB**.

Reverie detects the format itself and previews how many messages it found, and how they split between you and the character, before anything is written. See [Importing your history](https://reverie.im/en/docs/getting-started/importing-your-history).

## Inside a long conversation \[#inside-a-long-conversation]

* **Message navigation** — the marker rail beside a long transcript. Hover a marker to preview that message and click to jump to it; on a touch device, drag the rail to scrub.
* **Chat Settings → Chat Management → View Chat History** lists your other conversations with this character without leaving the one you are in.
* **New conversation**, in the chat header, starts a fresh chat with the same character.
* **Chat Settings → Conversation Setup → Start New Session with Memory** compresses the conversation into a short background and opens a new chat that already has it. Your persona, scenario, chat setup, installed plugins and saved memories come along; the messages stay behind in the original. The opening message is generated like a normal reply, so it costs credits at your model's rate.
* **Chat Settings → Chat Management → Convert to Novel** turns the conversation into a [novel](https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/chat-to-novel).

## Related \[#related]

* [Forking conversations](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/forking) — branches, and the **Timeline** view
* [Sharing a conversation](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/sharing-a-conversation) — publishing one by link
* [How memory works](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/memory) — what a new session carries over
* [Importing your history](https://reverie.im/en/docs/getting-started/importing-your-history) — supported sources and what survives
* [Side panel & settings](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/side-panel) — where **Chat Management** sits