Steering: Conversations That Keep Up With You

🎯 What is it?

Steering transforms how you interact with Dust agents by allowing you to send messages while the agent is working. You can now see every step of the agent's work in real-time—thinking, tool calls, searches—and redirect it on the fly without canceling or losing progress. Additionally, conversations are now scoped to one agent at a time, displayed in the input bar, so you no longer need to use @mentions.

💡 Why is it useful?

Previously, conversations with agents were strictly turn-based: you'd send a message, wait for the complete response, and only then could you course-correct if needed. This made it difficult to guide the agent early when you saw it heading in the wrong direction, and you had no visibility into what was happening behind the scenes. Steering solves this by letting you shape the output as it's being built, not after it's done.

⚙ How does it work?

As soon as an agent starts working, you'll see live updates of each step it takes. If you notice it's going off track or you want to add context, simply send a new message—the agent will incorporate your input immediately without restarting from scratch.

✨ Concrete Use Cases

Here's how you could use it:

Research and analysis: You ask an agent to research a topic, but after seeing the first few searches, you realize you need a different angle. Instead of waiting for the full response, you immediately steer it: "Actually, focus on European regulations instead."

Data exploration: An agent starts querying multiple data sources, and you see it's pulling from the wrong database. You send a quick message to redirect it before it completes unnecessary work, saving time and getting accurate results faster.

📈 Benefits for you

• Save time: Redirect agents early instead of waiting for full responses you'll need to regenerate

• Better control: Guide the conversation dynamically based on what you see happening

• Full transparency: Understand exactly what the agent is doing at each moment

• Smoother workflow: No more @mentions needed when working with a single agent

🚀 How to access it?

Steering is now available to everyone automatically. Start a conversation with any agent and try sending a follow-up message while it's working. For complete details and examples, visit the full documentation.