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:
Understand plain English (not just commands)
Execute commands and use that output to guide you
Correct itself when it encounters mistakes
Learn and integrate with any service that has public docs or --help
Utilize your saved workflows to answer queries
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-Ior typeASTERISK-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”.
This will put you in Pair mode by default. While pairing with Warp, you can write out questions and tasks in an ongoing conversation.
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 textor 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.
How to choose your model in Agent Mode
Warp supports the ability to choose from a pre-defined list of LLMs to be used in your Agent Mode queries. Warp defaults to using Claude 3.7 Sonnet, but has support for OpenAI GPT-4o, OpenAI o3-mini, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3.5 Haiku, Gemini 2.0 Flash, and DeepSeek R1 & V3 (hosted by Fireworks AI in the US).
When you start an agent mode conversation, you will be able to see the model being used.
To change the model being used, click the current model name, 'claude 3.5 sonnet' in the example image above, to open a dropdown menu with the supported models. Your model choice will persist in future prompts.
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-UPto attach the previous block as context to the query. While holdingCMD, you can then use yourUP/DOWNkeys to pick another block to attach.You may also use your mouse to attach blocks in your session. Hold
CMDas you click on other blocks to extend your block selection.
Clear a previous block
To clear blocks from a query, you can use
CMD-DOWNuntil the blocks are removed from context.You may also use your mouse to clear blocks in your session. Hold
CMDas 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.
Coding capabilities in Agent Mode
Agent Mode now includes advanced coding capabilities directly within your terminal, triggered when it detects an opportunity to generate a code diff. This powerful feature allows for seamless code generation, editing, and management tasks, all within your terminal environment.
For a more tailored editing experience, you can attach context blocks directly from the terminal, providing Agent Mode with specific input to guide its diff suggestions.
If you have questions or feedback about this recent feature, feel free to contact us at feedback@warp.dev.
Examples of coding capabilities
Agent Mode responds to prompts related to code generation, editing, and analysis. Here are some examples:
Code creation: “Write a function in JavaScript to debounce an input”
Based on error outputs, suggest fixes: “Fix this TypeScript error.”
Modify code within a file: “Update all instances of ‘var’ to ‘let’ in this file.”
Apply changes across multiple files: “Add headers to all .py files in this directory”
When Agent Mode generates a code diff, you can review, refine, and decide whether to apply the changes.
Navigating diffs within text-editor view
When Agent Mode generates a code diff, it automatically triggers a built-in text editor diff view, which visually displays the changes as distinct hunks.
You can navigate through the highlighted hunks using the UP and DOWN arrow keys or mouse clicks. Agent Mode also supports multi-file changes, enabling you to view and manage hunks across several files. To switch between files, use the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys.
Once satisfied with the changes, you can apply them by pressing ENTER or selecting the “Accept Changes” button. These modifications will not be applied to the files until you explicitly accept them.
Refining and editing diffs in text-editor view
For refining or customizing the changes, Agent Mode allows for further interaction. You can refine the query (and diff) using natural language by pressing R or the “Refine” button, which will generate an updated diff based on your follow-up input.
If you wish to make direct edits within the text editor, press E or the “Edit” button to open the editor view. You can exit the editor by pressing ESC.
To cancel a pending action, use CTRL-C (on both Mac and Linux systems).
You can open up code files in Warp by clicking on the link and selecting "Open in Warp"\
Supported languages for code suggestions in Agent Mode
Agent Mode’s built-in text editor supports a wide range of programming languages and syntax highlighting, including: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Golang, Java, C, C#, C++, HTML, CSS, Bash, JSON, YAML. We are also continuously working on adding support for more languages.
You can also open supported code files in Warp by clicking on the link, then selecting "Open in Warp". To save your changes, press CMD-S on macOS or CTRL-S on Linux and Windows.
Codebase Context
In order for Agent Mode to be able to answer questions about about the code files in your codebase, Warp can generate an outline containing relevant information about each file. This outline can then be used when querying Agent Mode to find relevant files for a requested query.
Outline generation works in the following way:
When opening a new terminal pane or changing to a new directory in the terminal, check if this directory is a part of a Git repository.
If it is in a Git repository, extract metadata from each code file in the repository.
Only file types for languages supported by Agent Mode are processed.
Files in
.gitignoreare not processed.This metadata currently includes function names in the file, but this may expand.
The first time that a user opens a directory after the Warp application is opened, the outline for the repository is fully generated. Creating an outline for repositories can take a few minutes for large repositories. Codebase context will not be used in Agent Mode queries until the outline is generated.
Outline generation is completely local. The outline is only sent to the server when an Agent Mode request is made that could use the codebase context and the user approves sending codebase context for that directory.
After the outline is generated in full, Warp watches for changes to any file in the directory and the outline is updated as needed.
These outlines can then be used by Agent Mode to search for relevant files to answer questions about a codebase, or find relevant files to edit.
You can disable generating codebase context outlines and using them for Agent Mode requests by disabling the "Codebase Context" setting.
Dispatch
Dispatch is a form of Agent Mode that carries out complex tasks automatically. When you make a Dispatch query, the AI will:
Gather context about the task, using your codebase, requested commands, and followup questions.
Use a reasoning model to create a plan to carry out the task. You can refine the plan with AI, or edit it directly.
Automatically carry out the approved plan.
While Dispatch is executing a plan, it automatically runs commands and applies code changes. However, it will still obey your command denylist. The border along the left of the session will change color to indicate that Dispatch is running autonomously:
Dispatch is currently in beta. Its capabilities will improve over time.
How to enter Dispatch
You can enter Dispatch in a few ways:
Press CMD-SHIFT-I to toggle between Dispatch and the terminal input, or to switch from pairing to Dispatch.
If you're using the Warp prompt, you can also click the Dispatch context chip:
Autonomy
Agent Mode supports configurable autonomous command execution under Settings > AI > Autonomy. You can customize this by:
Using a command allowlist to specify which commands can auto-execute
Using a command denylist to specify which commands require confirmation
Letting the Agent Mode model automatically determine if a command is safe to execute based on whether it's read-only
Command allowlist
Agent Mode comes with default allowlist entries for common read-only commands that can be automatically executed without user confirmation.
which .*- Find executable locationsls(\s.*)?- List directory contentsgrep(\s.*)?- Search file contentsfind .*- Search for filesecho(\s.*)?- Print text output
You can add your own regular expressions to this list in Settings > AI > Autonomy > Command allowlist. Commands in the allowlist will always auto-execute, even if they are not read-only operations.
Mostly any commands are allowed to be auto-executed if they are on the allowlist, with the exception of any commands that contain redirection. e.g. which warp 2>/dev/null
Command denylist
Agent Mode comes with default denylist entries for potentially risky commands that always require explicit user permission before execution. A couple of examples include:
wget(\s.*)?- Network downloadscurl(\s.*)?- Network requestsrm(\s.*)?- File deletioneval(\s.*)?- Shell code execution
The denylist takes precedence over both the allowlist and model-based auto-execution. If a command matches the denylist, user permission will always be required, regardless of other settings. You can add your own regular expressions to this list in Settings > AI > Autonomy > Command denylist.
Model based auto-execution
Agent Mode can dynamically analyze command safety for automatic execution of read-only commands. This provides intelligent command safety analysis but follows a strict precedence order.
Denylist (highest priority) - Commands always require confirmation
Allowlist - Commands always auto-execute
Model-based analysis (lowest priority) - Agent Mode determines if a command is read-only safe
This behavior can be toggled in Settings > AI > Autonomy > Model-based auto-execution.
File read permissions for coding
When performing coding tasks, Agent Mode can automatically read files. This allows Agent Mode to analyze code without requiring explicit permission for each file access.
This behavior can be toggled in Settings > AI > Autonomy > Coding read permissions.
Warp Drive as Agent Mode context
Agent Mode can leverage your Warp Drive contents to tailor responses to your personal and team developer workflows and environments. This includes any Workflows, Notebooks, Environmental Variables, etc..
When a Warp Drive object is pulled as context, it will be displayed in the conversation as a citation under "References" or "Derived from".
How billing works 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.
AI Request limits apply to Agent Mode, Generate, Active AI, 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 do not count as billable Warp AI requests. Next Command suggestions are counted separately to Warp AI requests as noted in our Active AI docs.
You can monitor your request usage under Settings > AI > Usage.
What counts as a Warp AI token in Agent Mode?
Tokens are chunks of text, such as words, parts of code, or characters, that large language models (LLMs) break down to analyze and generate responses. LLMs have a maximum number of tokens they can process at once. Warp AI Requests and Suggestions are not the same as Tokens, which are limited separately regardless of which plan you're on. Please learn more about Tokens here and refer to pricing for the current monthly token limits on each plan.
When do my Warp AI requests, suggestions, and tokens 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 token 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 providers OpenAI or Anthropic train on your data.
What model are you using for Agent Mode?
The following LLMs are currently supported in Warp:
OpenAI:
GPT-4o
o3-mini
Claude:
3.7 Sonnet
3.5 Sonnet
3.5 Haiku
Google:
Gemini 2.0 Flash
DeepSeek (hosted by Fireworks AI in the US):
R1
V3
Is DeepSeek enabled by default?
No, DeepSeek is never enabled by default. By default, Agent Mode uses Claude 3.7 Sonnet. To use DeepSeek, you would need to manually select it from the model selector inside Agent Mode.
How is my data handled for DeepSeek models?
We take privacy and security very seriously when it comes to models developed by foreign companies or hosted outside the US. DeepSeek models in Warp are hosted exclusively on US servers through our trusted provider, Fireworks AI. No requests are routed to servers outside the US.
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.
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