diff --git a/src/penai/llm/conversation.py b/src/penai/llm/conversation.py
index 1554d6d..293d0ed 100644
--- a/src/penai/llm/conversation.py
+++ b/src/penai/llm/conversation.py
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 from collections.abc import Callable
 from copy import copy, deepcopy
-from typing import Generic, Self, TypeVar
+from typing import Generic, Self, TypeAlias, TypeVar
 
 import markdown
 from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
-from langchain.chains.conversation.base import ConversationChain
 from langchain.memory import ConversationBufferMemory
+from langchain_core.messages import HumanMessage
 
 from penai.llm.llm_model import RegisteredLLM
 
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ def get_code_in_sections(self, heading_level: int) -> dict[str, str]:
 
 
 TResponse = TypeVar("TResponse", bound=Response)
+QueryType: TypeAlias = str | HumanMessage
 
 
 class Conversation(Generic[TResponse]):
@@ -42,7 +43,7 @@ def __init__(
         response_factory: Callable[[str], TResponse] = Response,  # type: ignore
     ):
         self.memory = ConversationBufferMemory()
-        self.chain = ConversationChain(llm=model.create_model(), memory=self.memory)
+        self.llm = model.create_model()
         self.verbose = verbose
         self.response_factory = response_factory
 
@@ -54,25 +55,19 @@ def get_full_conversation_string(
             [message.pretty_repr() for message in self.memory.buffer_as_messages],
         )
 
-    @property
-    def _input_key(self) -> str:
-        return self.chain.input_key
-
-    @property
-    def _output_key(self) -> str:
-        return self.chain.output_key
-
-    def query_text(self, query: str) -> str:
-        response_dict = self.chain.invoke({self._input_key: query}, return_only_outputs=True)
-        response = response_dict[self._output_key]
+    def query_text(self, query: QueryType) -> str:
+        self.memory.chat_memory.add_user_message(query)
+        ai_message = self.llm.invoke(self.memory.chat_memory.messages)
+        self.memory.chat_memory.add_ai_message(ai_message)
+        response_text = ai_message.content
         if self.verbose:
-            print(response)
-        return response
+            print(response_text)
+        return response_text
 
-    def query(self, query: str) -> None:
+    def query(self, query: QueryType) -> None:
         self.query_text(query)
 
-    def query_response(self, query: str) -> TResponse:
+    def query_response(self, query: QueryType) -> TResponse:
         return self.response_factory(self.query_text(query))
 
     def clone(self) -> Self: