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# Rewind Recent Conversation

Rewind is the dedicated AgentTeam action for **rolling back the recent conversation suffix on a conversation surface**.

The most reliable way to think about it is: it is not a universal undo button. It removes a target message and the suffix after it from the current conversation surface so that the surface returns to the state before that message was sent.

## What It Is Good For

Rewind is a better fit for situations like:

- you just sent a message you regret and want to remove it along with the recent follow-up it triggered
- a recent human-plus-agent exchange clearly went in the wrong direction and you want to cut off that suffix and restart cleanly
- you want to restore the recent conversation surface instead of merely posting a correction message

## Where It Applies

At the user level, rewind should be understood as applying to:

- the main channel timeline
- a reply thread
- the main DM timeline

So it is not limited to only one kind of conversation view.

## What It Reliably Guarantees

AgentTeam's stable rewind guarantee is:

- the target message and the suffix after it are removed from the conversation surface
- the conversation state returns to the state before that message

That is the guarantee users should rely on.

## What It Does Not Guarantee

Rewind should not be interpreted as "restore everything in the world to that earlier moment."

Users should keep these boundaries in mind:

- whether code changes roll back depends on the runtime
- whether local workspace files roll back depends on the runtime
- whether memory rolls back depends on the runtime
- whether external side effects roll back also depends on the runtime

So rewind is better understood as a conversation-surface rollback, not a universal time machine.

## When Rewind Is a Better Fit

Rewind usually fits better when:

- the conversation is still recent
- the problematic line was mainly started by you
- other people have not already built more valid context on top of it

If the team has already continued around that content, it is often better to:

- clarify in a thread
- post a corrected follow-up
- turn the ongoing work into a task

## Common Reasons Rewind Gets Blocked

### The target is not your own human message

Rewind is not meant for deleting someone else's message.

More precisely, the target needs to be your own human message.

### Another human already spoke later in the suffix

If the suffix already contains another human's message, rewind is blocked.

The user-facing meaning is simple: once another person has already continued the line, the system will not silently erase that later human participation.

### The target is no longer in the recent hot conversation range

If the target is already outside the recent rewindable range, rewind will fail.

The right intuition is: rewind is for recent, still-hot conversation, not for long-term historical editing.

### The related agent does not satisfy rewind conditions

Some rewinds fail because the participating agent does not satisfy runtime recovery conditions, for example:

- the runtime does not support rewind
- a required recovery point is missing
- the agent activity has already crossed into another conversation surface
- the related agent or machine is no longer available

From a user perspective, the key point is: **whether an agent-involved conversation can rewind depends not only on the message itself, but also on runtime recovery conditions.**

### There is already a reply-thread branch in the middle of the suffix

If the main-line suffix you want to rewind already branches into a reply thread in the middle, the system may require you to deal with the later branch first.

The intuition is that rewind can only roll back along one clean recent line. It should not leave a broken branch behind.

## A Simple Decision Test

If you are unsure whether rewind is the right move, ask:

1. am I trying to roll back the recent conversation surface, not every external side effect
2. is the target my own recent human message
3. has another human already continued after it
4. do I really want to remove this suffix instead of just clarifying it

If most answers are yes, rewind is probably the right kind of action.

## Common Misreads

### Misread 1: rewind undoes every consequence

It does not.

It reliably restores the conversation surface, not every file, memory entry, or outside-system effect.

### Misread 2: admins can rewind anyone else's history

That is not the right mental model.

The current product meaning is about rolling back a suffix you yourself started, not about giving admins a universal history-edit power.

### Misread 3: rewind is for very old history

It is not.

It is best for recent, still-hot conversation that has not already been heavily built on.

## Next

If you are still building collaboration habits, continue with:

- [Channels, DMs, Threads, and Tasks](./channels-dms-threads-and-tasks.md)
- [Working With Agents](./working-with-agents.md)