Forking Chats

Copy a conversation up to (or from) any message into a new chat, so you can take it somewhere else without touching the original.

Forking copies part of a conversation into a new chat. Use it when you want to try a different direction from some point in a thread, or split a long conversation into a separate one, and leave the original exactly as it was.

Fork from a message

Hover over a message and select the fork icon (Open Fork Menu). A popover opens with three fork options, two checkboxes, and Remember. Pick an option and the fork happens right away: LibreChat shows "Forking conversation...", then opens the new chat.

The fork popover open under an assistant message, showing the three fork option icons, the Start fork here and Leave out files checkboxes, and Remember

The new chat keeps the original title. A fork of a temporary chat is also temporary.

Forking is not available on Assistants endpoint messages or on search results.

What gets copied

The options decide which messages come along. The "target message" is the one you opened the popover from.

Visible messages only: the direct path from the start of the conversation to the target message, with no other branches. This is what you see on screen.
Include related branches: the same path, plus the alternate branches (edits and regenerations) that split off along it.
Include all to/from here: every message leading up to the target, including neighboring branches, whether or not they are on the visible path. This is the default.

Hover an option's icon to see the same explanation in the app.

Start fork here and Leave out files

Start fork here flips the direction. The message you opened the popover from becomes the starting point, and the fork runs from there to the latest message in the conversation, using whichever option you pick.

Leave out files copies the messages without their attached or generated files, so later messages in the fork don't send them again. Use it when a large or broken file is causing trouble in the original thread. This checkbox is never remembered; you tick it for each fork.

Remember and the default fork option

Ticking Remember before you pick an option saves that option as your default. From then on, the fork icon skips the popover and forks immediately with it. The Start fork here checkbox is always kept as you last left it.

To get the popover back or change the saved choice, open Settings, go to the Chat tab, and find the fork settings under Conversations:

Use default fork option: when on, the fork icon forks immediately with the default option.
Default fork option: which of the three options to use. Only shown while the toggle above is on.
Start fork from target message by default: the default for Start fork here.

Settings, Chat tab, Conversations section, showing the Use default fork option toggle, the Default fork option dropdown, and the Start fork from target message by default toggle

Forking a shared conversation

When someone shares a conversation with you, Continue this chat on the shared page forks it into your own account, following whichever branch you have selected. See Shareable Links.

Setup

Forking is on for everyone and needs no setup. Admins can rate-limit fork requests with the FORK_* variables in the .env reference.