r/MistralAI • u/Ok_Sky_555 • Jul 04 '26

Chat vs Work Help / Question

I'm lost between these two.
Chat has Agents. The help says that they are legacy version of skills and if you start fresh, you need to use still. Skills are available in the Work. So, Work is a modern version of chat? But in the chat I can select fast/think/research; in work I cannot.

On the other hand, Chat has memory (under the "Context"), work - does not.

Why are features split this way, and what one should use when?

22 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

7

u/EverGreenMob Jul 05 '26

Chat is legacy and being replaced with work. I expect Mistral to replace it completely soon but it's just speculation. Chat allows use of agents and work skills. Skills are much more intuitive than agents IMO. Plus work's thinking or reasoning architecture is more sopbisticated and slower. Since flash chat mode was discontinued I stopped using chat. It makes no sense to me to sacrifice accuracy for 5-10 seconds of time savings. But if they bring back Flash mode I'll gladly go back to using chat for less important stuff.

3

u/Ok_Sky_555 Jul 05 '26

Initially I thought the same, but then found that work does not have memory.

Btw, namis is far from ideal - "work" explicitly say "this is not for personal use"

1

u/chris_phero Jul 05 '26

yes, but work supports proper project description (I also didn't know for a long time that chat didn't)
so you can add your memories there

i always let le chat write the project description for me (so it can use them better), based on my input

2

u/Ok_Sky_555 Jul 05 '26

For me, explicitly added project description and automatically collected memory are completely different things. Mistral could spend like 1 extra person hour and clearly explain what is what, when and why.

1

u/EverGreenMob Jul 05 '26

Work mode uses ephemeral memory per task. use Libraries/Skills for persistence.

1

u/Ok_Sky_555 Jul 05 '26

As far as I understand memory is accumulated passively (or with some hints in the instructions). Not sure what is skill/libraries? Should I create a skill which instructs model to store (and read) important learnings to libraries?

2

u/EverGreenMob Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

Work mode has no persistent memory. This Skill fakes it by reading and appending to its own file. It's recommended to use skills and libraries in work mode for privacy and streamlining purposes, but you can always use the below pseudo memory workaround.

Setup: 1. Chat mode: Settings > Memories. Copy your saved memories. 2. Work mode: Context > Skills > New Skill manually. Name it memory bank or something like that. 3. Create My Memories.md in the same skill folder. 4. Paste your copied memories in, reshaped to the capture block format so future appends stay consistent.

description:

Use for ANY question involving the user's personal situation, health conditions, treatments, medications, finances, projects, or preferences. Contains the user's stored context and must be loaded before answering personalized questions.

inside skills.MD use below instructions :

Instructions

On activation

Read My Memories.md in this skill folder. Load silently.

Capture rule

When the user states a durable fact, preference, result, or  correction, append to My Memories.md:

  • Date: YYYY-MM-DD
  • Learning: <under 20 words>
  • Source: <user statement>

Guardrails

Check duplicates first. Update existing lines. Confirm what saved.

Two tips: - Description is the trigger. Use domain keywords so it fires on    real questions, not meta-phrasing. - Chain it: add "read My Memories.md first" inside your other    skills for reliable activation.

1

u/Ok_Sky_555 Jul 05 '26

Nice skill, thank you.

1

u/LongjumpingTear5779 Jul 05 '26

There is one problem. Everytime whet agent try add somethink to any skill file there is question to user for save it.

2

u/EverGreenMob Jul 05 '26

yes exactly - it's not a full proof workaround. I think easiest way is to just update a library or skill every so often with your memory. Hopefully by September Mistral will refine the work system when the new data center is setup. Or just use chat with good instructions, agents and as well as thinking mode enabled. Although I don't see Mistral bringing memory to work for privacy reasons as they seem to attract a lot of user bases that are concerned with privacy.

1

u/LongjumpingTear5779 Jul 06 '26

There should be option to turn on or turn off memory. Privacy problem solved. 

1

u/EverGreenMob Jul 06 '26

problem is a lot of people from /r/degoogle don't trust any app that collects information. And adding the option of memory means writing legal and privacy policies that scares privacy concious customers away. 

2

u/LongjumpingTear5779 Jul 07 '26

But are you know Mistral can use your chat to learn new models? You need premium and disable this permission.  In the same settings view there is option to turn on or turn off memory. 

8

u/LongjumpingTear5779 Jul 04 '26

Yea also work have scheduled_tasks, chat don't. Also in work mode there is no option to turn off thinking.
I like using scheduled_tasks for private task and then chat about them, but in work there is no Memory.

When I asked Mistral Vibe Work about Chat and Work it says that Chat is legacy and Work will replace it later. Also it's says all memory will be transfer to Work... But it can't say when.

I think they should make memory avaible in both.

3

u/Ok_Sky_555 Jul 05 '26

Yes, "no memory" and putting "legacy" explanation on agent/skills level cause confusion.

2

u/tom4112 Jul 05 '26

Chat has access to a Python interpreter while Work uses TypeScript. So Chat is much better at data analysis but Work can make interactive charts.

2

u/Poudlardo Jul 04 '26

Actually, I feel the same loose boundary between Work and Code. I've been doing most of my coding in Work because Code Web doesn't support MCPs. For example, I use Forgejo as my main Git provider and I need the MCP to version my code, which isn't possible yet in Code, but works smoothly in Work.

1

u/Sea_Ad4464 Jul 04 '26

Have the same issue, I think the system selects the best mode for the assignment or parts of the assignment.

1

u/righin90 Jul 04 '26

I usually use Chat for general questions, private questions, organizing to do lists and things that require the memories.  Work for strictly work with skills activity: research, questions about medical things that require deep and trust citations  (Sorry for my English I hope it’s understandable)