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Groups

This page explains what groups are and how NeoTavern handles multi-character conversations today.

What a Group Is​

A group is a single conversation in which several characters take part. Where a regular chat has one character plus your persona, a group chat switches between characters so that each reply can come from a different participant.

Groups in NeoTavern Today​

The core chat model of NeoTavern is one character per conversation, with your persona layered on top. A dedicated group chat feature that lets you create a conversation and switch its members in the app is planned; it is not available in the current release, so this page describes what works today instead.

Imported Group Chats​

When you migrate a SillyTavern backup through Settings → Data, group chats are handled safely:

  • Group definitions and their transcripts are imported as regular chats, carrying the original group record in the chat metadata.
  • The transcript keeps every participant name, message, and swipe variant, so the multi-character history remains readable and you can continue the conversation.
  • Unsupported categories are listed explicitly in the import report instead of being silently dropped.

Working with Multiple Characters Now​

While native groups are planned, these features cover the common multi-character workflows:

  • Separate chats per character. Each character keeps their own chat history, and the Chats panel scopes the list to the current character.
  • A shared world via lorebooks. Bind a lorebook to several characters so consistent world knowledge reaches every conversation. See Lorebooks.
  • Storyline branches. Use checkpoints and branches to explore divergent paths with any character without losing the main conversation. See Chatting.
  • Personas. Switch your own persona per chat to change how you present yourself in each conversation.

If you need a true multi-character conversation, keep the imported group chat approach in mind: it preserves your existing group history, and the planned native feature will build on the same data.