---
title: "Edit a line item via chat"
description: "Tell Wave what to change in plain English. The one rule: when you target a room-scoped line item, name the room in your command."
group: "estimates"
lane: "how-to"
status: "published"
publishedAt: 2026-05-15
sidebarOrder: 70
tags: ["line-items", "chat", "how-to"]
relatedSlugs:
  - "estimates/edit-line-item-manually"
  - "estimates/delete-line-item"
  - "estimates/answer-formats"
  - "reference/chat-commands"
sidebarLabel: "Edit (chat)"
---

Anything you can edit in the right pane, you can edit through chat. Useful when you have multiple changes to make or you'd rather describe what you want than click around.

## What chat edits can do

- **Rename** — *"Rename the air mover line in the hall bathroom to 'air mover — 24-hour run'."*
- **Quantity** — *"Bump the dehu count in the hallway to 2."*
- **Price** — *"Add 10% to the antimicrobial application in the hall bathroom."* Or set absolute: *"Set the floor protection to $45 per LF."*
- **Add a line item** — *"Add a baseboard repair line to the hallway, 8 LF."*
- **Delete a line item** — *"Delete the cover register from the hall bathroom."*
- **Multi-edit in one message** — chain them: *"Bump the dehus to 2, add a floor protection line, and delete the cover register from the hall bath."*

For the full verb list, see [Chat commands cheat sheet](/docs/reference/chat-commands).

## The room-specification rule

> **When you're editing a line item that lives inside a specific room, name the room in your command.**

Most line items are scoped to a room (Hall Bathroom, Hallway, etc.) rather than the General section. Without the room name, Wave doesn't know which room's line item to target — there might be a "cover register" in three different rooms.

- ✅ *"Delete the cover register from the hall bathroom"*
- ❌ *"Delete the cover register"*

## The General-section gotcha

> **The word "General" is not always recognized as a section name by chat.**

If a chat command targeting a line item in the General section fails, try:

- Omitting the section name entirely (Wave will try to disambiguate from context)
- Deleting from the line-item kebab in the UI ([Delete a line item](/docs/estimates/delete-line-item))

We track this in [Troubleshooting](/docs/troubleshooting/general-issues).

## When chat is the only option

- **Adding a room** can only be done through chat — see [Add a room mid-estimate](/docs/estimates/add-room).
- Everything else is also available in the right pane.

## Related

- [Edit a line item manually](/docs/estimates/edit-line-item-manually) — right-pane equivalent
- [Answer formats](/docs/estimates/answer-formats) — what Wave accepts as input
- [Chat commands cheat sheet](/docs/reference/chat-commands) — full verb list
- [Delete a line item](/docs/estimates/delete-line-item)