Steering a run
Steering is sending a correction to a run that is still in progress. The agent picks it up on its next step, so a correction costs one step instead of the whole run.
When to use it
Section titled “When to use it”The moment you see the run going the wrong way. Watching a bad run finish and then explaining what was wrong wastes everything it did in between — and the agent has to rebuild the context you already watched it gather.
Good steers are short and corrective:
- “Only this week, not the whole month.”
- “Skip the newsletters.”
- “Write it as a table, not prose.”
- “Stop searching, you already have enough — just summarize.”
How it works
Section titled “How it works”Type into the composer while the run is going and send. There is nothing else to do: a message sent during a run is a steer, not a new turn.
The agent finishes the tool call it is currently making, then reads your correction before deciding the next step. That is why a steer sometimes appears to land one action late — a call already in flight is not cancelled.
What steering can and cannot change
Section titled “What steering can and cannot change”| Can | Cannot |
|---|---|
| Redirect what the agent does next | Undo a tool call that already ran |
| Narrow or widen the task | Change the model or prompt for this run |
| Change the output format | Recover data an action already deleted |
| Stop it searching and make it answer | Take back an email an approved action already sent |
Anything irreversible is guarded by the approval gate rather than by steering — that is the mechanism for “do not do that”, and it comes before the action, not after.
Running out of steers
Section titled “Running out of steers”A single run accepts a limited number of steers — five by default. This is a guard against a run being redirected indefinitely instead of being restarted.
When you reach the limit, your message is not lost: it is delivered as a normal follow-up message and handled after the run ends. The conversation tells you when this happens.
Limits
Section titled “Limits”- Five steers per run by default.
- A steer applies to the run it was sent into. It is not remembered for the next run unless you put it in the prompt or memory.
- Steering is available in the chat surfaces. A run started by a routine or from a channel is not sitting in front of you to steer.
- A tool call already in flight completes before the correction is read.