Pilot mode
Multi-step tool calling for tasks that need to read, write, run or fetch. Six built-in tools cover file I/O, shell, web and project search. Supervised or fully automatic.
When you want it
Pilot mode kicks in for prompts that imply action: "refactor this file", "check what the latest version of X is", "run the tests and fix anything that fails". The router detects the action verbs and switches the response from a single completion to a tool-using loop.
The six built-in tools
| Tool | What it does | Defined in |
|---|---|---|
file_read | Read a file from the project workspace | core/builtin_tools.py |
file_write | Write or patch a file in the project workspace | core/builtin_tools.py |
shell_exec | Run a shell command, capture stdout/stderr | core/builtin_tools.py |
http_request | Make an HTTP call (with allowlist enforcement) | core/builtin_tools.py |
web_fetch | Fetch and parse a web page to clean text | core/builtin_tools.py |
project_search | Grep across the project workspace | core/builtin_tools.py |
Supervised vs automatic
Every tool call goes through a confirmation step by default. The user sees what the agent wants to do (e.g. shell_exec: pytest tests/) and approves or denies. For trusted workflows you can switch a persona to pilot_mode: auto, in which case the agent runs the tool without asking.
sudo is. Use it for personas you trust, and pair it with the audit log so every action is traceable.How it differs from plan mode
Pilot mode is one agent running a loop of tool calls. Plan mode is one Conductor breaking a goal into a DAG of subtasks, dispatching each to a Worker (which may itself be in pilot mode), and synthesising the results. Pilot is the engine of plan.