Questions
- What are prompts in LibreChat and how can I make them effective?
- How do I start chatting with an AI model in LibreChat?
- What follow-up actions can I take after getting a response?
- What is the temporary chat feature in LibreChat and when should I use it?
Environment
This information is for current Bowdoin College faculty, staff, and students who have access to LibreChat. It applies when using LibreChat in a web browser on Bowdoin-managed or personal devices. Users must log in with Bowdoin Single Sign-On and multi-factor authentication.
Resolution
LibreChat offers a secure interface for prompting a variety of powerful generative AI models. It can serve as a centralized hub for all your AI conversations, providing a familiar, user-friendly interface enriched with advanced features and customization capabilities.
A prompt is the input or set of instructions you provides to LibreChat to guide its output. Prompts can range from a single question to a detailed description, and their clarity, detail, and structure greatly influence the quality and relevance of LibreChat's response. Best practices for creating effective prompts include: clearly stating the goal or desired output, providing necessary context or constraints, using precise and unambiguous language, and, when appropriate, breaking complex requests into smaller, sequential steps. Iterating and refining prompts based on LibreChats initial responses can further improve results.
Get Started
A great way to get a feel for LibreChat is to start chatting with the default AI model (gpt-5-chat-latest) by entering your prompt into the message field:
The AI model will return a response in the chat window. You will see your chat appear in the chat history, and you will have access to a number of follow up actions that you can select:
The follow up actions are:
Read aloud - A computer-generated voice reads the message out loud. 
Copy to clipboard - Copies the content of the selected message to your clipboard to be pasted into another window or program.
Edit - Allows you to edit your prompts and/or the responses of the various models.
- Save & Submit - Saves your edit and resubmits the information to regenerate the AI's response.
- Save - Saves your edit without regenerating the response.
- Cancel - Closes the edit window without saving changes.
Fork - Creates a new conversation that starts from the specific message selected. This can be useful for refocusing the conversation, creating branching separate scenarios, preserving context, and more. '- Prompt feedback: '
Love This' or 
'Needs Improvement'
Regenerate - Forces the model to try to create a new response without any additional context.
Using the Temporary Chat feature in LibreChat
In LibreChat, the temporary chat feature lets you start a conversation that is not saved to your chat history or database. Click on the 'speach bubble' at the top right hand corner of the chat window to enable a temporary chat.
When you enable temporary chat:
- No records are stored — once you leave or refresh the session, the conversation is gone.
- You can still exchange messages with the AI as usual.
- It’s useful for private queries, testing prompts, or when you don’t want to clutter your saved chats.
- Any context or conversation memory is lost after the temporary session ends — the chat is ephemeral.
In other words, temporary chat is like “incognito mode” for LibreChat conversations: you can interact without leaving a persistent trace in your account.
If you have questions, please contact the Service Desk at (207) 725-3030 or servicedesk@bowdoin.edu