Build, Plan, Ask and Design

Every message you send to the agent has a mode. The mode decides whether the agent may change your project or only look at it.

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Pick a mode

The mode switch sits in the prompt box. The placeholder text changes to match the mode: Pick the mode before you send. You can switch for every message.

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Build

Build is the mode for making changes. The agent writes and edits code, installs packages, builds your app and checks that it runs in the preview. Use Build when you want something to change: a new screen, a fix, a different color.

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Plan and Ask

Plan and Ask are for thinking before you change anything.

• Ask: questions about your app. “How does the sign-in screen work?” or “What does this error mean?”
• Plan: a written plan for a change. “Plan how to add a favorites list.”

In Remote chats, Plan and Ask can’t change files. The agent can read your project and look into problems, but it can’t edit files or build the app. If your request needs changes, the agent suggests switching to Build.

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Turn a plan into changes

In Remote chats, Plan gives you a written plan. There’s no approval button. When you’re happy with the plan:

1. Switch the mode to Build.
2. Send a message such as “Build the plan you just wrote.”

If you want changes to the plan first, stay in Plan and reply with what to change.

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Design

Design is available only in Local chats in the Mac app. See Local chats on your Mac.

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Modes and the queue

If you send messages while the agent is still working, they wait in a queue. Each queued message keeps the mode it was sent with. For example, you can queue an Ask question while a Build turn runs. See Chatting with the agent.

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Credits

Every mode is charged the same way: by the work the agent does in the turn. Ask and Plan aren’t discounted. A short answer uses fewer credits than a long investigation, whatever the mode. See How credits work.