Comments and replies
Comments keep questions, evidence, decisions, and feedback attached to a task. Start a new comment for a new topic. Reply when you are continuing the topic under an existing comment.
Where comments appear
Task details provide two tabs:
- Activity shows comments, threaded replies, and task activity in one timeline. Use it to reply, react, edit or delete when permitted, and resolve a comment thread.
- Conversations lists every Agent conversation on this task, including ones opened by an @ mention in a comment.
The Agent chat on a task does not take a tab. It opens in a side panel on the task, and it is not a comment timeline. You can start it without first assigning an Agent or Crew. See Chat with an Agent.
Write team-visible conclusions in comments or the task description. Messages in the task's Agent chat do not become Activity comments.
Comment notifications and task Agent-chat notifications follow different audience rules: ordinary comments use task subscriptions and notification preferences; Agent replies and related handoff notices in a task conversation are directed to that conversation's starter, rather than broadcast to every subscriber or earlier participant.
The Agent chat on a task does not read from or write to standalone Agent Chat sessions.
Start a comment or continue a thread
Use a new comment when the information should stand on its own, for example:
- a new requirement, constraint, or acceptance condition;
- a fresh review finding or decision;
- a new set of logs, screenshots, or files;
- an instruction for the task's Agent Assignee.
Use a reply when answering or extending an existing comment. Replies are attached to the top-level comment. If a reply targets another reply, Anakin still keeps the thread at one level under its root comment.
Comment actions
Depending on your permissions, you can:
- attach files and include mentions;
- add or remove a reaction;
- edit or delete a comment you are allowed to manage;
- copy a comment or copy a full thread as a prompt;
- resolve or reopen a comment thread from the root or any reply.
The comment More menu (labels follow the product UI) typically includes:
- Edit: at the top of the menu; entering edit focuses the comment so you can type immediately;
- Resolve thread with comment (on the Resolution comment: Reopen thread);
- Copy, Copy as prompt;
- Share;
- Delete.
Resolving still applies to the whole thread and collapses it in Activity. Resolve from the root or from a reply; the comment that resolved the thread shows a Resolution marker. On a resolved thread, only that comment's menu shows Reopen thread. Other comments keep Resolve thread with comment, which moves the Resolution marker to the current comment. Reopen the thread before adding another reply.
Expand the reply composer
The reply composer can expand into a larger editing area. Expanding or collapsing it keeps the current draft, long text, and pasted images, so you can continue editing before sending.
Quick replies
Quick replies are personal saved responses available in comment and reply composers. Click the item text to send it immediately. Hover to show Insert, with the hint Inserts into the composer without sending. Inserting writes the text into the composer and focuses it; it does not send. Edit the text, then send it yourself.
You can add, edit, reorder, and remove quick replies. They are stored per person, not shared with the team.
Mention an Agent in a quick reply
Quick replies can include an Agent mention. Select an Agent while creating or editing a quick reply; the mention remains when you reopen it. Sending the quick reply directly, or selecting Insert to place it in a comment, reply, or Agent Chat composer before sending, uses the normal Agent-mention rules.
An Agent must be available and usable by the current person in the current Organization and Space to remain an active mention. An archived, unavailable, cross-Space, or inaccessible Agent may be shown as plain text or prevent sending. A quick reply does not bind an Agent to every Task.
Review confirmation from a quick reply
When a Task is waiting for review, successfully sending the “Reviewed, no issues” quick reply clears the pending-review marker automatically. The cleared state remains consistent in task lists, Task details, and when you reopen the Task. This happens only after the message is sent successfully and only when the Task was actually waiting for review.
This clears the pending-review marker only. It does not change the Task's lifecycle status or mark the Task as completed.
Copy an image from a comment or chat
Open the image preview in a task comment or Agent chat and select Copy image to paste it into another application that accepts images.
If copying is unavailable or fails, use the preview's download action to save the image instead.
Download large attachments
When an attachment cannot be previewed directly, use Download rather than Open. Anakin shows download feedback, and the desktop app opens the download directory and locates or selects the file after the download completes. This depends on operating-system permissions and desktop-app capabilities; if the file is not located automatically, find it in the system Downloads folder.
Long comments
Long comments in Activity collapse by default. Use Expand all at the bottom to read the full text so other comments that were pushed off-screen become visible. After expanding, you can Collapse the comment.
Attachments
Wherever multiple attachments are supported, the file picker accepts a multi-selection, so you can add several files at once instead of one at a time.
When an attachment appears in the body, it is part of that content. Deleting it from the body with Backspace or Delete, then saving, permanently removes the file. It does not move to the standalone attachments area below.
If you only want it out of the body but still need the file, use Remove from task description or Remove from comment. After you move it out, it appears as a standalone attachment; inserting it into the content again hides the standalone card.
Deleting a standalone attachment still asks for confirmation, and confirming permanently deletes the file. Images, videos, and ordinary files use the same delete and move-out meaning; preview can differ.
When you edit a comment, attachments on that comment that the current draft does not yet reference still appear as standalone attachments. You can insert, move them out, or delete them.
If you clear the comment body and save:
- when the comment has no remaining attachments, the product asks whether to Delete comment (it does not silently restore the original text);
- when a comment-level standalone attachment remains, the comment is kept as an attachments-only comment.
In the task description, click once to select an attachment node and double-click to preview. In a read-only comment body, click once to preview. This section does not cover Chat or Agent conversation attachments.
Share selected task comments
In Activity, use the share control on a comment or reply to enter selection mode, then select one or more comment items. Only items the UI allows you to select can be shared; content brought in by a third-party integration might not be selectable.
A share link can be visible to Anyone with the link or Organization members only, and you can also copy the selected comments as plain text or create a share image. A share is a creation-time snapshot, so later comments and edits do not change the shared page. Revoke sharing invalidates the current share links for that source.
Before sharing, confirm the source and the access boundary in the originating external system. Do not share passwords, tokens, API keys, private keys, personal data, internal logs, or unredacted screenshots. Anyone who has a public link may be able to access it.
When a comment starts an Agent conversation
A plain member comment does not start the task's Agent Assignee. To have an Agent or Crew respond from a comment, @ mention that Agent or Crew.
An explicit Agent or Crew mention starts a new chat on the task, using that comment as its starting point, and writes the comment into that chat. A conversation card appears under the comment, titled Chat with {{name}}, with a byline naming who triggered it: triggered by {{name}}'s comment, or started by {{name}} when a person opened it. Activity can still show Continued in the chat with {{name}}.
The same Agent can therefore have several chats on one task; they do not replace each other, and mentioning different Agents opens separate chats. To start another one, use Create new conversation — in the task chat panel's ⋯ More actions menu or in the Call Agent menu (the two entries behave the same). Both rosters show how many chats the Agent or Crew already has on this task, and show nothing at zero. The Assignee tag marks the executor's primary chat on the task: at first assignment that is the chat the first run opened; if a later assignment chooses Run in a new conversation, the primary chat (and the Assignee tag) moves to the new one.
The mentioned Agent or Crew does not need to be the task Assignee, but it must belong to the organization, be available, and be accessible to the member.
Several runs of one Agent on one task still queue behind each other instead of running in parallel.
When the mention is written by an Agent and the mentioned Agent already has a pending run on the task, the mention is skipped, so that Agents do not trigger each other in a loop. A mention written by a member is not skipped for that reason.
Continue a specific chat by replying in its conversation card. @ mentioning the same Agent again starts a new chat rather than continuing the existing one.
A hand-off state — Needs your reply or Needs your review — appears on that task conversation. Inbox can still group those conversation signals onto the task row. See Chat with an Agent.
Keep durable requirements in the task
Use comments for discussion and follow-up context. Keep the stable goal, scope, and acceptance criteria in the task description so the current requirement remains easy to find.