Plan Mode and Agent Mode: how Assist plans work and gets it done

Summary: Assist has two gears for getting real work done. Plan Mode is where Assist pauses and agrees the approach with you first. Agent Mode is where Assist actually does the work — searching, creating, and delegating across your workspace. For big jobs they pair up: plan first, then execute. For small jobs, Assist just gets on with it.

What you'll learn

What Agent Mode is and when Assist switches into it
What Plan Mode is and why it appears before bigger jobs
How the two modes fit together
What you'll see on screen at each stage (plan cards, task timelines, tool-call chips)
How to trigger, edit, redirect, or skip these modes when you want more control

How it works

Agent Mode — Assist actually doing the work

Most of the time, when you ask Assist for something real — a document, a campaign, a workflow, a piece of research — it doesn't just reply with a chat message. It rolls up its sleeves and goes to work. That's Agent Mode.

In Agent Mode, Assist works through a sequence of tool calls to complete the job end-to-end. It might search your workspace, read existing knowledge, create outputs from templates, or hand off parts of the job to specialist sub-agents. You'll see all of this happen live.

What you'll see on screen:

A task timeline with named steps (e.g. "Gathering context", "Drafting brief", "Creating output")
Inline tool-call chips like Used: List Projects or Used: Search Outputs so you can see exactly what Assist is doing
Progress indicators showing which step is currently running (e.g. "Task 2/5")
Sub-agent delegations when Assist hands part of the job to a specialist

Agent Mode kicks in any time the request needs real work done. Pure conversational questions — "What does this template do?", "Remind me how sharing works?" — stay in normal chat mode. That's fine; no timeline needed for a quick answer.

Plan Mode — agree the approach before any work starts

For bigger or more ambiguous jobs, Assist doesn't just dive in. It pauses, thinks, and drafts a plan for you to review first. That's Plan Mode.

A good analogy: Plan Mode is the contractor showing you the quote and schedule before they start. Agent Mode is them on site doing the build. You wouldn't want a contractor knocking down walls before you've agreed what you're building — and the same applies here.

Plan Mode kicks in automatically for non-trivial, multi-step, or ambiguous requests — things like "build me a campaign", "set up an onboarding workflow", or "audit our knowledge base and reorganise it". Trivial one-step requests skip it entirely.

What you'll see on screen:

A Drafting plan… indicator while Assist thinks
A numbered plan card showing each discrete step Assist intends to take
Options to accept, edit, or reject the plan before any tools run

Why it exists: it stops Assist from running off and producing the wrong thing. You get a cheap chance to course-correct before any real work happens — much better than waiting until the end to realise step 3 was off-target.

You can also trigger Plan Mode manually at any time. Just say something like "plan this out first" or "give me a plan before doing anything", and Assist will pause and draft one — even on smaller requests where it wouldn't normally bother.

How the two modes fit together

Big or ambiguous job: Plan Mode → you accept → Agent Mode executes each step
Small or clear job: Agent Mode runs straight away, no plan needed
Just a question: Neither mode triggers — Assist just answers

After you accept a plan, each step becomes a tracked task in the timeline as it runs. So the plan you agreed and the work Assist does are always lined up — no surprises.

Let's say you type into Assist:

"Set up a weekly newsletter workflow for our team."

That's a multi-step job, so Plan Mode kicks in. Here's what happens:

1. Assist pauses and drafts a plan

You'll see a Drafting plan… indicator appear. After a moment, a numbered plan card shows up with something like:

Search the workspace for any existing newsletter templates or agents
Create a new "Weekly Newsletter" output template
Set up a @ReleaseWriter agent configured for weekly cadence
Draft a sample first issue using last week's project activity
Add a reusable "What's ready" recap so the team can repeat this every week

2. You review and tweak

Step 3 isn't quite right — you'd rather use your existing writing agent. So you edit step 3 directly on the plan card to say "Use our existing @ContentAgent instead of creating a new one". Then you hit accept.

3. Agent Mode takes over

The plan card collapses into a live task timeline. Each step lights up as Assist works through it. You'll see tool-call chips appearing inline — things like Used: Search Outputs , Used: List Agents , Created: Weekly Newsletter template — so you can follow exactly what's happening.

A progress indicator shows "Task 3/5" as it moves along. When Assist delegates the draft to @ContentAgent , you'll see that handover too.

4. The "What's ready" recap

When everything's done, Assist finishes with a clear "What's ready" recap listing every asset it created, where it lives, and how to reuse it next week. Job done — and because you agreed the plan upfront, no surprises.

Tips & common pitfalls

Ask for a plan whenever you want one. Even on smaller requests, you can say "plan this out first" and Assist will draft one. Useful when you want to think before committing.
Edit or reject any step. The plan card is fully editable before you accept. Tweak wording, remove steps, add new ones, or reject the whole thing and ask Assist to try a different approach.
You can interrupt mid-run. If Agent Mode is partway through and you spot something off, just say so. You can stop it, redirect it, or add new instructions without starting over.
Ask Assist to re-plan if priorities change. Halfway through and realised you need something different? Say "re-plan this" and Assist will pause, draft a fresh plan, and wait for you to accept it.
Small or conversational requests won't trigger Plan Mode. That's fine — they don't need one. If you ask "what's in this project?", Assist will just tell you.
If Assist starts working without a plan and you'd prefer one, just say "stop and plan this first". It'll pause and switch into Plan Mode.
Don't worry if the first plan isn't perfect. That's exactly what Plan Mode is for — catching issues before any work happens. Editing the plan is much cheaper than redoing the output.