feat: add an interactive chat command by ConnorMoss02 · Pull Request #86 · a2aproject/a2a-cli

ConnorMoss02 · 2026-10-02T14:58:46Z

Adds a2a chat. It reads a message, sends it, prints the reply and loops. The context id carries across turns and an input-required task continues with your next message.

--stream works like it does for send, and --context-id and --task-id pick up an existing conversation. Ctrl-C cancels a running turn, and a failed turn prints the error without ending the chat. It stops on auth-required and prints the ids on /quit, EOF or Ctrl-C at the prompt. When stdin or stdout isn't a terminal it sends once and exits.

Fixes #34

yarolegovich

thanks for the PR! overall looks good, but I'd encourage to polish the overall chat UX further before merging it

yarolegovich · 2026-10-15T10:39:43Z

+		Short: "Chat with an agent, carrying the conversation across turns",
+		Long: "Chat with an agent interactively. Each reply continues the same conversation: the context id is carried " +
+			"across turns, and an input-required task is continued with your next message. Type " + chatQuit + " or press " +
+			"Ctrl-D to exit; the context and task ids are printed so you can resume with send.\n\n" +


let's wrap the context so that a running turn gets cancelled through ctx ( signal.NotifyContext(cmd.Context(), os.Interrupt)). this will however require moving lines.Scan() blocking call into a background goroutine

Done in 936c233. Ctrl-C now cancels the running turn and drops you back at the prompt. Ctrl-C at the prompt exits and prints the ids. Input reads on a goroutine so the interrupt gets noticed.

yarolegovich · 2026-10-15T10:42:38Z

+	defer cancel()
+
+	result, err := s.client.SendMessage(ctx, &a2a.SendMessageRequest{Message: msg, Tenant: s.cfg.tenant})
+	if err != nil {


I'd probably keep the chat session open on send message errors

Done in 7d78c4c. A failed turn prints the error like send does and the chat keeps going. Auth-required still ends it.

yarolegovich · 2026-10-15T10:46:07Z

+const chatQuit = "/quit"
+
+func newChatCmd(cfg *globalConfig, isTerminal func() bool) *cobra.Command {
+	return &cobra.Command{


let's add support for --context-id and --task-id to allow resuming a task in chat mode

Added in 2554dae. Same flags and help text as send, and the first message goes out with those ids.

yarolegovich · 2026-10-15T10:52:36Z

+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, s.cfg.timeout)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	result, err := s.client.SendMessage(ctx, &a2a.SendMessageRequest{Message: msg, Tenant: s.cfg.tenant})


we're not in a rush with releasing chat support, so would be nice to have --stream option supported here

Added in e5288f1. I pulled the streaming code out of send into sendStreaming so both commands use it.

ConnorMoss02 · 2026-10-20T17:59:47Z

I also took a stab at sending CancelTask when a turn is interrupted (663dd60), so the agent stops working on it too. Happy to roll it back if you'd rather keep that out of this PR.

yarolegovich · 2026-10-28T12:12:09Z

+		Args: cobra.MaximumNArgs(1),
+		RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
+			interactive := deps.isTerminal()
+			if !interactive && len(args) == 0 {


I would just always fail for non-interactive. otherwise it's a send but with less functionality

msampathkumar · 2026-10-28T12:28:28Z

+
+	cmd := &cobra.Command{
+		Use:   "chat [message]",
+		Short: "Chat with an agent, carrying the conversation across turns",


Suggested change

Short: "Chat with an agent, carrying the conversation across turns",

Short: "Chat interactively with an agent",

msampathkumar · 2026-10-28T12:33:16Z

+	"github.com/a2aproject/a2a-go/v2/a2aclient"
+)
+
+const chatQuit = "/quit"


/exit feels more natural to me. Can we have both /exit & /quit ?

msampathkumar · 2026-10-28T12:43:08Z

+		Long: "Chat with an agent interactively. Each reply continues the same conversation: the context id is carried " +
+			"across turns, and an input-required task is continued with your next message. Type " + chatQuit + " or press " +
+			"Ctrl-D to exit; the context and task ids are printed so you can resume with send, or with chat --context-id and --task-id. " +
+			"Ctrl-C cancels a running turn and asks the agent to cancel its task, or exits at the prompt.\n\n" +
+			"When standard input or output is not a terminal, chat sends [message] once, like send, and reads no input.",


Suggested change

Long: "Chat with an agent interactively. Each reply continues the same conversation: the context id is carried " +

"across turns, and an input-required task is continued with your next message. Type " + chatQuit + " or press " +

"Ctrl-D to exit; the context and task ids are printed so you can resume with send, or with chat --context-id and --task-id. " +

"Ctrl-C cancels a running turn and asks the agent to cancel its task, or exits at the prompt.\n\n" +

"When standard input or output is not a terminal, chat sends [message] once, like send, and reads no input.",

Long: "Start an interactive chat session with an agent. Chat reuses the same context ID " +

"across turns and continues tasks that require input.\n\n" +

"Controls:\n" +

" " + chatQuit + ", Ctrl-D Exit and print the context and task IDs to resume later\n" +

" Ctrl-C Cancel an active turn (and its agent task), or exit at the prompt\n\n" +

"Non-interactive mode sends [message] once and exits. Use resume --context-id and --task-id to resume a conversation.",

msampathkumar · 2026-10-28T12:47:28Z

+	f.BoolVar(&flags.stream, "stream", false, "Use streaming response. Falls back to polling and synthetic events if a server does not support streaming.")
+	f.StringVar(&flags.taskID, "task-id", "", "Task ID to continue an existing task")
+	f.StringVar(&flags.contextID, "context-id", "", "Context ID to group this turn under")
+	f.DurationVar(&flags.pollInterval, "poll-interval", 2*time.Second, "Duration between GetTask requests in polling fallback mode.")


Suggested change

f.BoolVar(&flags.stream, "stream", false, "Use streaming response. Falls back to polling and synthetic events if a server does not support streaming.")

f.StringVar(&flags.taskID, "task-id", "", "Task ID to continue an existing task")

f.StringVar(&flags.contextID, "context-id", "", "Context ID to group this turn under")

f.DurationVar(&flags.pollInterval, "poll-interval", 2*time.Second, "Duration between GetTask requests in polling fallback mode.")

f.BoolVar(&flags.stream, "stream", false, "Stream responses (falls back to polling if unsupported)")

f.StringVar(&flags.taskID, "task-id", "", "Task ID to continue an existing task")

f.StringVar(&flags.contextID, "context-id", "", "Context ID to continue an existing conversation")

f.DurationVar(&flags.pollInterval, "poll-interval", 2*time.Second, "Interval between GetTask requests when polling")

msampathkumar · 2026-10-28T12:49:23Z

@ConnorMoss02 Thank you for working on this. We appreciate this work :)

I have shared a few comment to help with the help messages.

feat: add an interactive chat command

105defc

yarolegovich reviewed Oct 15, 2026

View reviewed changes

msampathkumar and others added 8 commits October 16, 2026 20:40

Merge branch 'main' into feat/34-chat

dbefa9b

Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into feat/34-chat

4887818

feat: resume a task in chat with --context-id and --task-id

2554dae

fix: keep the chat session open when a turn fails

7d78c4c

feat: stream chat replies with --stream

e5288f1

feat: cancel a running chat turn with Ctrl-C

936c233

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/feat/34-chat' into feat/34-chat

c4cb666

feat: cancel the agent's task when a chat turn is interrupted

663dd60

yarolegovich reviewed Oct 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'main' into feat/34-chat

8f41b6a

msampathkumar reviewed Oct 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

	Short: "Chat with an agent, carrying the conversation across turns",
	Short: "Chat interactively with an agent",

-		Long: "Chat with an agent interactively. Each reply continues the same conversation: the context id is carried " +
-			"across turns, and an input-required task is continued with your next message. Type " + chatQuit + " or press " +
-			"Ctrl-D to exit; the context and task ids are printed so you can resume with send, or with chat --context-id and --task-id. " +
-			"Ctrl-C cancels a running turn and asks the agent to cancel its task, or exits at the prompt.\n\n" +
-			"When standard input or output is not a terminal, chat sends [message] once, like send, and reads no input.",
+		Long: "Start an interactive chat session with an agent. Chat reuses the same context ID " +
+			"across turns and continues tasks that require input.\n\n" +
+			"Controls:\n" +
+			"  " + chatQuit + ", Ctrl-D   Exit and print the context and task IDs to resume later\n" +
+			"  Ctrl-C          Cancel an active turn (and its agent task), or exit at the prompt\n\n" +
+			"Non-interactive mode sends [message] once and exits. Use resume --context-id and --task-id to resume a conversation.",

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ConnorMoss02 commented Oct 20, 2026

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msampathkumar commented Oct 28, 2026

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ConnorMoss02 commented Oct 2, 2026 •

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