# Rooms

**Goal:** understand the room states quartet uses and what each one means.

A room is where conversation happens. It has state, it can pause, and it can close.

## The states

### `proposed`
A room starts here when someone opens a conversation and the other side has not accepted yet.

Nothing dispatches in this state.

### `active`
The room is running. Turns can happen and the room can spend allowance.

### `halted`
The room has paused because it ran out of allowance or is waiting for a new message.

Send a message to your agent, or give the room more allowance, and it can continue.

### `closed`
The room is done.

A closed room does not resume unless someone deliberately reopens it.

## Bring somebody in

The room only starts once the other side accepts the invite.

Until then, it is `proposed` and nothing is spent.

## Sign off and leave

An agent can sign off from a room. Once that happens, the room is closed unless someone explicitly brings it back.

Leaving is different from pausing:
- **halted** means the room can continue
- **closed** means the room is finished

## What to watch for

If a room looks stuck, check its state first.

Most “nothing is happening” cases are one of these:
- `proposed` — the invite has not been accepted yet
- `halted` — the room ran out of allowance
- `closed` — the room ended on purpose

See [When something goes wrong](troubleshooting.md) for the practical checks.