Planner & compose

The central agent compose surface. Type a task, see a live cost estimate, choose a mode, send.

The compose box

The big textarea in the Ask tab. Type any task — natural language. The composer supports:

• @-mentions — see @-mentions. Pull files, symbols, folders, git diff, error context, or specific code ranges into the prompt.
• Plain markdown — backticks for code, lists, headers. The agent receives them verbatim.
• Multi-line — Shift+Enter for newline, Enter to send.

Three submit modes

Three buttons under the composer:

• Plan only — agent runs in mode: "plan". Returns reasoning, no diffs. Useful as a sanity check before spending budget on real edits.
• Draft explanation — mode: "draft". Returns explanatory text only. Useful for documentation generation.
• Stage diff — full run. Agent generates code changes that go to the Changes panel for review.

Cost preview

To the right of the buttons, a live estimate updates as you type:

~$0.0017  in: 412 → out: 280   session: $0.18 / $5.00

Three numbers: estimated cost for this task, your session-to-date spend, and your daily cap. When you exceed the cap, the estimate goes red and submit is disabled.

The estimate is a POST /api/budget/estimate call — no model tokens spent.

Targeting

When a file in the editor has its Target file flag set, the planner shows a chip:

> Targeting: services/auth.py

The agent will scope its work to that file by default. Click the chip's × to clear targeting.

Cancel a run

While a run is live, the Send button becomes a Stop button. Click to cancel. Esc does the same. The agent receives a cancellation signal and stops at the next checkpoint; budget is freed.

Plan vs Draft vs Stage diff