- name
- vs-chat
- description
- Conversational search runtime: send messages, keep sessions consistent, and verify retrieval behavior and responses.
- category
- chat
- applies_to
- codex, agents, external-agent
- requires_cli
- >=0.1.0
- keywords
- chat run, chat search, dialogue search, multi-turn, session id
- commands
- chat run, app status, app diagnose
# Viking Chat
## When to Use
Use this skill for conversational search requests, session continuity, multi-turn checks, retrieval verification, and response inspection.
## Version Check
Before starting this skill workflow, run `vs version check --json`. Continue only when `status` is `up-to-date`. If `status` is `update-available`, stop and tell the user to update the cloned `vs` repository, then run `git pull --ff-only`, `bash ./scripts/install.sh`, and `bash ./scripts/install-skills.sh all --target auto --force` (PowerShell: `scripts/install.ps1` and `scripts/install-skills.ps1`). If the status is `unknown`, stop and report that the CLI version could not be verified.
## Preconditions
- an `application-id` is available
- the application is preferably already ready
## Commands
- `chat run`: send a conversational search request with full payload control
- `app status` / `app diagnose`: confirm readiness before testing chat behavior
## Workflow
1. Check `app status` first and confirm the application is ready
2. Use `chat run` for the first message
3. If you need multi-turn behavior, pass `session-id` explicitly
4. Use the full request payload when you need tighter control over the request
5. If you request `--format json`, parse one JSON document; do not treat the output as NDJSON
6. Summarize whether retrieval was triggered, whether relevant items were returned, and whether session continuity is preserved
## Customer Environment Principle
- In customer environments, assume repository source code is unavailable.
- Execute tasks using only the installed skills, the packaged `vs` CLI surface (`--help`, command output, and observed runtime behavior), and explicit user-provided information.
- Do not rely on reading local repository source files, generated repo snapshots, or implementation details to decide runtime actions.
- If the installed CLI behavior conflicts with a skill, trust the installed CLI behavior first.
- If the skills and the packaged CLI still do not provide enough information to proceed safely, stop and ask the user instead of searching source code.
## Constraints
- Before executing any concrete `vs ...` command in this chat workflow, first consult `vs-product-qa` to verify the current command surface, required flags, payload fields, input format, and allowed values. Only after that check may you finalize parameters and run the command.
- `vs chat ...` is the conversational search runtime surface
- When debugging parsing issues, inspect the raw JSON response first instead of adding an extra line-oriented parser
- If a command failure or user follow-up turns into a product concept, capability, API field, console UI path, purchase, billing, or general troubleshooting question outside this chat workflow, temporarily hand off to `vs-product-qa`; return to this workflow only after the grounded product answer is complete.
View on GitHub