Mode System

Mode System

clawd tracks a GCI mode per session. The mode tells the AI agent how to behave: whether to brainstorm freely, plan exhaustively, execute code, or just respond to questions. Changing mode changes the injection context the agent receives on every message.

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Modes

Mode	What it means
NORMAL	Default. Respond to requests, do small tasks, have conversations.
LEARN	Deep dialogue — ask questions, capture context to memory. Never write code.
STORM	Free brainstorm — "yes and" everything. No evaluation, no code. All ideas captured.
FORGE	Exhaustive planning — write tasks, lock versions, gap analysis. No application code.
CRUNCH	Code execution — write code, never stop, follow tasks exactly.

The daemon stores the mode per session in the sessions.mode column (migration 013_session_mode.sql). It persists across daemon restarts.

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Setting mode

Via RPC

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "session.setMode",
  "params": { "session_id": "sess-abc", "mode": "CRUNCH" }
}

Valid values: NORMAL, LEARN, STORM, FORGE, CRUNCH.

Returns { "session_id": "sess-abc", "mode": "CRUNCH" }.

Push event

When mode changes, the daemon broadcasts:

{
  "method": "session.modeChanged",
  "params": { "session_id": "sess-abc", "mode": "CRUNCH" }
}

Connected clients (desktop and mobile apps) update their session display immediately.

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How mode affects context injection

When a session message is dispatched, the daemon prepends mode-specific instructions to the system context before sending to the AI provider. Each mode injects a short banner:

• NORMAL — no banner (standard behavior)
• LEARN — "LEARN MODE: Ask questions. Capture answers to memory. Never write code."
• STORM — "STORM MODE: Yes and. Generate ideas freely. Everything to ideas/. No evaluation."
• FORGE — "FORGE MODE: Plan exhaustively. Write tasks. Lock versions. No application code."
• CRUNCH — "CRUNCH MODE: Execute. Write code. Never stop. Follow tasks exactly."

This injection happens in the daemon — the client does not need to include mode instructions in every message.

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Mode in session state

session.get returns the current mode as part of the session object:

{
  "id": "sess-abc",
  "mode": "CRUNCH",
  "status": "active",
  ...
}

session.list also returns mode for each session, so the client can display the active mode badge without a separate call.

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See Also

• Features/Session-Manager — session lifecycle, message flow
• Daemon-Reference — full session.* RPC reference
• Home