Branching Conversations

Branching is modeled as thread + attributes, not a separate channel type.

Canonical framing

• Parent conversation: a thread
• Branch conversation: another thread with parentChannelId
• Branch intent: metadata such as branchPurpose
• Merge/summarize behavior: lifecycle metadata and message-level actions

This keeps taxonomy simple while preserving powerful branch workflows.

Why this matters

• Main conversation stays focused
• Deep dives run in parallel
• Agent-specialized work can happen in child threads
• Results can be summarized back into the parent thread

Typical flow

1. User or agent creates a child thread from a parent thread
2. Child thread runs focused exploration (often with a specialized agent)
3. Outcome is merged/summarized back to the parent thread
4. Child thread remains in history for traceability

Relationship to channel architecture

Branching behavior is part of the channel model described in:

• Channels (canonical taxonomy and attributes)
• Multi-Agent System

Use those pages as source of truth for channel typing and routing behavior.