Agent Mode

Use natural language to accomplish any task in the terminal

What is Agent Mode?

Agent Mode is a mode in Warp that lets you perform any terminal task with natural language. Type the task into your terminal input, press ENTER, and Warp AI runs highly accurate commands tailored to your environment. Agent Mode can:

  1. Understand plain English (not just commands)

  2. Execute commands and use that output to guide you

  3. Correct itself when it encounters mistakes

  4. Learn and integrate with any service that has public docs or --help

Visit the example gallery to watch videos of Agent Mode in action.

How to enter Agent Mode

You may enter Agent Mode in a few ways:

  • Type any natural language, like a task or a question, in the terminal input. Warp will recognize natural language with a local auto-detection feature and prepare to send your query to Warp AI.

  • Use keyboard shortcuts to toggle into Agent Mode CMD-I or type ASTERISK+SPACE.

  • Click the “AI” sparkles icon in the menu bar, and this will open a new terminal pane that starts in Agent Mode.

  • From a block, you want to ask Warp AI about. You can click the sparkles icon in the toolbelt, or click on its block context menu item “Attach block(s) to AI query”.

When you are in Agent Mode, a ✨ sparkles icon will display in line with your terminal input.

Auto-detection for natural language and configurable settings

The feature Warp uses to detect natural language automatically is completely local. None of your input is sent to AI unless you press ENTER in Agent Mode.

If you find that certain shell commands are falsely detected as natural language, you can fix the model by adding those commands to a denylist in Settings > AI > Auto-detection denylist.

You may also turn autodetection off from Settings > AI > Input Auto-detection.

The first time you enter Agent Mode, you will be served a banner with the option to disable auto-detection for natural language on your command line:

Input Hints

Warp input occasionally shows hints within the input editor in a light grey text that helps users learn about features. It's enabled by default.

  • Toggle this feature Settings > AI > Show input hint text or search for "Input hint text" in the Command Palette or Right-click on the input editor.

How to exit Agent Mode

You can quit Agent Mode at any point with ESC or CTRL-C, or toggle out of Agent Mode with CMD-I.

How to run commands in Agent Mode

Once you have typed your question or task in the input, press ENTER to execute your AI query. Agent Mode will send your request to Warp AI and begin streaming output in the form of an AI block.

Unlike a chat panel, Agent Mode can complete tasks for you by running commands directly in your session.

Agent Mode Command Suggestions

If Agent Mode finds a suitable command that will accomplish your task, it will describe the command in the AI block. It will also fill your terminal input with the suggested command so you can press ENTER to run the command.

When you run a command suggested by Agent Mode, that command will work like a standard command you've written in the terminal. No data will be sent back to the AI.

If the suggested command fails and you want to resolve the error, you may start a new AI query to address the problem.

Agent Mode Requested Commands

If Agent Mode doesn't have enough context to assist with a task, it will ask permission to run a command and read the output of that command.

You must explicitly agree and press ENTER to run the requested command. When you hit enter, both the command input and the output will be sent to Warp AI.

If you do not wish to send the command or its output to AI, you can click Cancel or press CTRL-C to exit Agent Mode and return to the traditional command line. No input or output is ever sent to Warp AI without your explicit action.

Once a requested command is executed, you may click to expand the output and view command details.

In the case that a requested command fails, Warp AI will detect that. Agent Mode is self-correcting. It will request another command until it completes the task for you.

Conversations with Agent Mode

Conceptually, a conversation refers to a sequence of AI queries and blocks. Conversations are tied to panes and you can have multiple Agent Mode conversations running at the same time in different panes.

You will get more accurate results from AI queries if the conversation is relevant to the query you ask. When you start an AI query unrelated to the previous conversation, start a new conversation. When you start an AI query related to the previous conversation, ask a follow-up and stay in the same conversation.

Long conversations can have high latency. We recommend creating a new conversation when possible for distinct tasks or questions where the previous context isn't relevant.

How to attach context to an Agent Mode conversation

Agent Mode can gather context from your terminal sessions and tailor every command to your session and environment.

You can supply a block of context to your conversation with Agent Mode as part of your query. From the block in the terminal, click the AI sparkles icon to "Attach as Agent Mode context."

The most common use case is to ask the AI to fix an error. You can attach the error in a query to Agent Mode and type "fix it."

If you're already in Agent Mode, use the following ways to attach or clear context from your query:

Attach a previous block

  • To attach blocks to a query, you can use CMD-UP to attach the previous block as context to the query. While holding CMD, you can then use your UP/DOWN keys to pick another block to attach.

    • You may also use your mouse to attach blocks in your session. Hold CMD as you click on other blocks to extend your block selection.

Clear a previous block

  • To clear blocks from a query, you can use CMD-DOWN until the blocks are removed from context.

    • You may also use your mouse to clear blocks in your session. Hold CMD as you click on an attached block to clear it.

When using "Pin to the top" Input Position, the direction for attaching or detaching is reversed (i.e. CMD-DOWN attaches blocks to context, while CMD-UP clears blocks from context).

How to ask a follow-up to stay in a conversation

By default, if you ask an AI query right after any interaction in Agent Mode, your query will be sent as a follow-up. The follow-up ↳ icon is a bent arrow, to indicate your query is continuing the conversation.

To enter follow-up mode manually, press CMD-Y.

How to start a new conversation

If there is no follow-up ↳ icon next to your input, this indicates a new conversation. If you ask an AI query after running a shell command you will be placed in a new conversation. Agent Mode will also kick you out to a new conversation after 3 hours.

To start a new conversation manually, use CMD-Y or BACKSPACE.

Context truncation

You might notice that in long conversations, the AI loses context from the very beginning of the conversation. This is because Warp's models are limited by context windows (~128K tokens) and it will discard earlier tokens.

How does billing work for Agent Mode?

Every Warp plan includes a set number of Warp AI requests per user per month. Please refer to pricing to compare plans.

Warp AI includes Agent Mode, AI Command Suggestions, and AI autofill in Warp Drive. When you have used up your allotted requests for the cycle, you will not be able to issue any more AI requests until the cycle renews.

What counts as a Warp AI request in Agent Mode?

Every time you submit an AI query from your input box, this counts as one Warp AI request.

Suggested commands and requested commands do not count as billable Warp AI requests.

You can monitor your request usage under Settings > AI > Request Usage.

When do my Warp AI requests refresh?

Allotted AI requests refill every 30 days from your signup date. When you upgrade to a Pro or Team plan, you will be given more requests immediately. You can follow along with your refill period by referencing Settings > AI > Request Usage.

For more FAQs about pricing, visit Plans, Subscriptions, and Pricing.

Privacy, Security, and Safety

We recognize that the terminal is a sensitive environment and we want to be explicit about what's leaving your machine and what’s being run when you use Agent Mode.

  • You have to explicitly approve any command the AI wants to run.

  • The natural language detection in the input is done completely locally. Warp first checks the string input with a completion engine, and then cross-checks the query string against popular engineering-related words. If you’re uncomfortable with the auto-detection, you may turn it off in Settings.

  • You get to choose what blocks, if any, are sent to Warp AI.

  • All actions are performed through terminal commands. All commands are inspectable. You may click on the requested commands to see their output. All suggested commands are run as regular Warp blocks you can read.

  • Suggested commands are not read by Warp AI.

  • While requested commands and their output are sent to Warp AI, you get to cancel out a requested command at any time.

  • You can inspect all data that’s leaving your machine using Network Log.

  • Warp does not store or train on any data from Agent Mode.

  • While Warp AI is built on OpenAI and OpenAI’s servers will receive all input, OpenAI does not train their models on this data.

  • Advanced security features, such as Zero Data Retention and Custom LLM, are available on Warp's Enterprise plan.

Known Issues and Limitations

  • Note that Agent Mode blocks are not shareable during session sharing. Participants will be able to share regular shell commands that are run, but will not be able to share AI interactions (requested commands, AI blocks, etc.).

  • Block actions such as Block Sharing are not available on Agent Mode AI blocks.

  • Warp AI does not have up-to-date information on several commands’ completion specs

  • You cannot continue any conversation that’s before an existing conversation.

  • Agent Mode works better with Warp's default prompt settings, where the prompt starts on a new line, than it does with a same-line prompt. If you are using the same-line prompt, the cursor will jump from the end of the single line to the start of the input box when you switch to Agent Mode.

Exceeding Agent Mode limits

“Message token limit exceeded” error

If you run into this error, it means that your query and attached context have collectively hit the context window limit on the models we are using. On GPT-4o, Warp AI cannot send more than 123,904 tokens in a single request, or you may not get output. To resolve this error, we recommend you start a new conversation or attach fewer lines of blocks to the query.

“Monthly token limit exceeded” error

Warp has set an extremely high token limit on users to prevent abuse. We do not anticipate any user hitting this limit. If you hit this limit and are interested in getting it lifted, please contact us with your use case at feedback@warp.dev

Agent Mode FAQs

What happened to the old Warp AI chat panel?

Agent Mode has replaced the Warp AI chat panel. Agent Mode is more powerful in all of the chat panel’s use cases. Not only can Agent Mode run commands for you, it can also gather context without you needing to copy and paste. To start a similar chat panel, click the AI button in the menu bar to start on a new AI pane.

Is my data used for model training?

No, Warp nor its provider OpenAI trains on your data.

What model are you using?

As of now, Warp is using OpenAI’s GPT-4o model.

Can I use my own LLM API key?

Warp AI is tailored for the terminal so you can get optimal results and performance. It’s suitable for AI power users and professional use cases.

For organizations with strict security requirements, a “Bring Your Own LLM” option is available on the Enterprise plan. At the Enterprise plan level, we can work closely with your team to ensure quality and compliance for your LLM of choice.\

PreviousWarp AINextAI Command Suggestions

Last updated