> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Steer a running turn > Send a new message to a turn that is already running, without losing what the agent is doing. This is what typing into a coding agent while it works does: the instruction is taken into account and the work continues. Where the harness has a native mid-turn primitive (Claude Code, Codex, pi, Prime Agent) nothing is interrupted and the response has `native: true`. Where it does not (OpenCode), Boat interrupts that turn and immediately continues the SAME conversation with the instruction, keeping the session and its memory, and the response has `native: false`. Refused with **409 `no_running_turn`** when the conversation has nothing in flight; queue work with `POST /prompt` instead. The steer shows up in `GET /events` as a `steer` event. See [Integrated agents](/integrated-agents). ## OpenAPI ````yaml openapi/boat-v1.yaml POST /sandboxes/{sandboxId}/steer openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Boat Public API v1 version: 1.0.0 description: > Public JSON API for creating, operating, prompting, observing, and exposing sandboxes from backend services, CI jobs, hosted workers, and Boat automation products. The v1 reference intentionally documents the developer integration surface only. Dashboard billing actions are not part of v1. servers: - url: https://boat.dev/api/v1 security: - BoatBearerAuth: [] tags: - name: Boat description: >- Unified Boat account, setup, lifecycle, prompting, event history, desktop access, and SSH operations. paths: /sandboxes/{sandboxId}/steer: post: tags: - Boat summary: Steer a running turn description: >- Send a new message to a turn that is already running, without losing what the agent is doing. This is what typing into a coding agent while it works does: the instruction is taken into account and the work continues. Where the harness has a native mid-turn primitive (Claude Code, Codex, pi, Prime Agent) nothing is interrupted and the response has `native: true`. Where it does not (OpenCode), Boat interrupts that turn and immediately continues the SAME conversation with the instruction, keeping the session and its memory, and the response has `native: false`. Refused with **409 `no_running_turn`** when the conversation has nothing in flight; queue work with `POST /prompt` instead. The steer shows up in `GET /events` as a `steer` event. See [Integrated agents](/integrated-agents). operationId: steer parameters: - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SandboxId' - name: conversation in: query schema: type: string description: >- Conversation id to steer. Also accepted in the body. Omit to steer the sandbox's most-recently-active conversation. requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/SteerRequest' examples: addATask: value: message: >- Also write /home/user/steered.txt containing the word STEERED, then finish. oneConversation: value: conversation: 8f1c2b7a-3d4e-4f5a-9b0c-1d2e3f4a5b6c message: Skip the integration tests, unit tests are enough. responses: '200': description: Message delivered to the running turn. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/SteerResponse' examples: steered: value: ok: true type: prompt.steered id: bx_23456789 conversationId: 8f1c2b7a-3d4e-4f5a-9b0c-1d2e3f4a5b6c promptId: prompt_456 native: true mode: native status: steered '400': $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest' '401': $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized' '402': $ref: '#/components/responses/PaymentRequired' '404': $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound' '409': $ref: '#/components/responses/Conflict' components: parameters: SandboxId: name: sandboxId in: path required: true schema: type: string pattern: ^bx_[23456789abcdefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyz]{8}$ description: Public Sandbox id returned by create/list/get sandbox calls. schemas: SteerRequest: type: object description: > A message for a turn that is ALREADY RUNNING. The agent takes it into account and keeps what it was doing, instead of queueing behind the turn (`POST /prompt`) or stopping it (`POST /interrupt`). **Conversations:** omit `conversation` to steer the sandbox's most-recently-active conversation, exactly like `POST /prompt` chooses one. Pass a `conversation` id to steer a specific one while the others keep running. The response's `native` says how the harness took it. See [Integrated agents](/integrated-agents). required: - message properties: message: type: string minLength: 1 description: The extra instruction for the running turn. conversation: type: - string - 'null' description: >- Conversation id to steer. Omit to steer the sandbox's most-recently-active conversation. format: uuid examples: - message: >- Also write /home/user/steered.txt containing the word STEERED, then finish. - conversation: 8f1c2b7a-3d4e-4f5a-9b0c-1d2e3f4a5b6c message: Skip the integration tests, unit tests are enough. SteerResponse: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/SuccessBase' - type: object required: - id - conversationId - promptId - native - status properties: type: type: string const: prompt.steered id: type: string description: Sandbox id. conversationId: type: string description: The conversation whose running turn was steered. promptId: type: string description: >- Id of the steer record. It appears in `GET /events` as a `steer` event; it is not a prompt run and has no lifecycle to poll. native: type: boolean description: >- `true` when the harness accepted the message into the turn that was already running, so nothing was interrupted. `false` when Boat interrupted that turn and immediately continued the SAME conversation with the instruction, which keeps the harness session and all of its memory but may repeat a little of the work in flight. mode: type: string enum: - native - fallback - late description: >- How the message was delivered. `native` and `fallback` mirror the `native` field; `late` means the turn finished between the request and its delivery, so the message ran as an ordinary new turn on the conversation. A steer reported `native` here can settle as `native-continued` on the `steer` event: the harness accepted it but its turn ended without acting on it, so Boat continued it immediately as its own turn on the same session. Read the event for the settled mode. status: type: string enum: - steered SuccessBase: type: object required: - ok - type properties: ok: type: boolean examples: - true type: type: string description: Stable success envelope discriminator added by v1. ErrorEnvelope: type: object required: - ok - type - status - code - message - error - requestId properties: ok: type: boolean examples: - false type: type: string examples: - sandbox.error status: type: integer examples: - 409 code: type: string examples: - provider_not_configured message: type: string examples: - Prompting is locked until Codex is configured on the Agents page. requestId: type: string examples: - req_01HX... error: type: object required: - code - message - status properties: code: type: string message: type: string status: type: integer details: type: object additionalProperties: true responses: BadRequest: description: Invalid request body or parameters. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorEnvelope' examples: invalid: value: ok: false type: sandbox.error status: 400 code: invalid_json message: Request body must be valid JSON. error: code: invalid_json message: Request body must be valid JSON. status: 400 requestId: req_01HX... Unauthorized: description: Missing or invalid bearer token. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorEnvelope' examples: unauthorized: value: ok: false type: sandbox.error status: 401 code: unauthorized message: Unauthorized error: code: unauthorized message: Unauthorized status: 401 requestId: req_01HX... PaymentRequired: description: >- Account cannot currently create or operate sandboxes. The error body may include a dashboard billing URL, but billing actions are not part of the v1 API. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorEnvelope' NotFound: description: Resource not found. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorEnvelope' Conflict: description: Request conflicts with current account or sandbox state. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorEnvelope' securitySchemes: BoatBearerAuth: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: sandbox_api_key description: >- Boat bearer token in the form `boat_...`. Service API keys authenticate sandbox operations. ````