Desktop and shortcuts

9xChat is built to sit beside your work. The tray menu starts a chat in one click, the Quick Assistant opens over any app with Alt+Space, and every common action has a shortcut.

Tray and menu-bar menu

Settings → General → Show in system tray (on macOS, Show in menu bar) puts 9xChat in the Windows or Linux system tray, or the macOS menu bar. Its menu offers, without opening the window:

• Show Window or Hide Window
• Ask about Clipboard: puts the text you copied into a new message, ready for your question
• New Chat and Private Chat
• Recent: your last five chats
• Chats, Images, Notes, Code, Library and Settings
• Quick Assistant Pro
• Open Data Folder and Check for Updates
• Quit

On Windows and Linux a left click opens the window; on macOS a click opens the menu. Tray icon style (Windows and Linux) picks Auto, Color, White or Black, whichever is easiest to see on your taskbar.

Startup and closing

• Keep running when the window is closed hides the window instead of quitting, so replies and image generations keep going. Open it again or quit from the tray icon. It needs the tray icon, so there is always a way back.
• Open at login starts 9xChat when you sign in to your computer. On a Mac, allow it under System Settings → General → Login Items if asked.
• Start in the tray (on macOS, Start in the menu bar) waits quietly in the tray after a login start instead of showing the window.

Notifications

Settings → Notifications decides what reaches you while 9xChat is in the background: Chat replies, Image generation and Failed tasks, each on its own, plus a Notification sound. Start a long answer or a batch of images, switch to other work, and get a nudge when it is ready.

Private chats never notify, and a notification never includes message content.

Quick Assistant

Press Alt+Space Pro anywhere on your computer and a compact 9xChat panel opens near the top of the screen, over whatever you are working in. Ask, read the answer, and press Esc to go back. Pin window keeps it open, Save to Notes keeps the answer, and you can copy the reply as text, Markdown, HTML, JSON or an image.

It uses the Quick Assistant model from Settings → Default models, so you can give it a fast model for quick questions.

Chat window

Switch to Chat Window Pro in a chat's header shrinks 9xChat to a compact window with just the conversation. Pin Chat keeps it on top of other apps, so you can follow a reply while you work. Switch to Main Window brings back the full app.

Screen capture

Add → Take a screenshot in the composer captures a whole screen or a single window straight into your message, with no file to save first. On macOS, allow Screen Recording for 9xChat when asked.

Quick actions in the composer

Type @ or / at the start of a line for quick actions, or add a letter to jump to agents (a), prompts (p), notes (n), knowledge (k), MCP servers (m), tools (t), skills (s) or extensions (e). See Chats → Quick actions.

Keyboard shortcuts

Every shortcut except Send message and New line can be changed in Settings → Keyboard shortcuts. Notes have their own formatting shortcuts; see Notes.