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Selecting an Agent

TermMate supports three agent backends. Switch between them using the agent selector in the chat panel.

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VS Code

Use the AGENT dropdown in the chat input panel. Your selection is remembered per workspace.

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Sublime Text

Switch agents by clicking the Agent tag above the chat input, or run TermMate: Agent from the Command Palette. Each entry shows the detected CLI path as an annotation so you can confirm which binary will be used. The choice is stored per window and persists with your project. To set a model per agent, click the Model tag above the chat input or run TermMate: Model. Models are remembered separately for each agent (e.g. gpt-5.4-mini for Codex, google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite for Pi). Pi Agent uses a GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable. Run pi in a terminal and use /login to authenticate before first use, or set the key via TermMate’s env setting. Common Pi Agent install locations TermMate searches automatically:
  • ~/.local/bin/pi
  • ~/.npm-global/bin/pi, ~/.yarn/bin/pi, ~/.bun/bin/pi
  • /usr/local/bin/pi, /opt/homebrew/bin/pi
To override the detected binary path for any agent, set <agent>_command in your TermMate settings:

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Tool Use Permissions

Agents are “agentic” because they call tools. Before any destructive action, TermMate asks for your approval:
  • File Edits — review a diff before changes are written to disk.
  • Terminal Commands — see the exact shell command before it runs.
  • Bash / MCP tools — approve or deny individual tool calls inline.
You can reduce interruptions in two ways:
  • Approve Mode (TermMate: Approve Mode in Sublime Text) — choose default (prompt before every tool action), allow-edit (auto-approve safe read/edit operations, still prompt for shell commands), or accept-all (auto-approve everything, including shell execution).
  • allowed_tools setting — a list of tools the agent may always use without confirmation. The default is ["Read", "Glob", "Grep", "TodoWrite", "WebFetch", "WebSearch", "Skill"].

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Plan Mode

For complex tasks, enable Plan Mode so the agent reasons before it acts:
  1. The agent analyzes the task and writes a detailed step-by-step plan.
  2. You review the plan before anything is executed.
  3. The agent carries out each step with your oversight.
This prevents the agent from going off-track on large refactors or multi-file changes. Pi Agent Plan Mode uses a read-only exploration phase first — the agent is restricted to safe read/find/grep tools until you approve the proposed plan, then exits to full execution with /plan implement.

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VS Code

Use the plan mode selector in the chat panel: choose planning (make plan and to-do list before executing) or fast (execute directly).

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Sublime Text

Toggle Plan Mode per session by clicking the PlanMode tag above the chat input, or run TermMate: Plan Mode from the Command Palette: choose planning (make plan and todo-list before execute) or fast (execute directly, the default).