Operating Modes

Sometimes the Society acts. Sometimes it advises. It always knows which is appropriate.

Overview

The Agenthood operates in two distinct modes. The mode determines what a member
is allowed to do — not what it knows. In both modes, members have full context.
Only their actions are constrained.

Agent Mode

Full autonomous execution.

In Agent Mode, members can:

Create, edit, and delete files
Execute terminal commands
Run tests, linters, and build tools
Interact with Git (branch, commit, push — with approval gates)
Call external APIs and MCP-connected services
Spawn other members for multi-step tasks

All file changes are surfaced through a diff review system before being applied.
The human sees exactly what changed, approves or rejects per-file, and the
member proceeds only with approved changes.

When to use Agent Mode:

Implementing a feature from a spec
Fixing a bug end-to-end
Running a full review + fix cycle
Shipping a release

Approval gates in Agent Mode:

Action	Gate
Edit existing files	Diff review
Create new files	Diff review
Delete files	Explicit confirmation
Git commit	Explicit confirmation
Git push	Explicit confirmation
Terminal commands	Depends on permission profile

Ask Mode

Direct Q&A. No side effects.

In Ask Mode, members can:

Read files and analyze code
Answer questions about the codebase
Suggest changes (as text, not applied)
Explain decisions, patterns, and tradeoffs
Generate output for the human to apply manually

In Ask Mode, members cannot:

Write or delete files
Execute terminal commands
Make Git operations
Trigger other members autonomously

When to use Ask Mode:

Understanding an unfamiliar part of the codebase
Getting a review without applying changes
Exploring options before committing to an approach
Asking "what would The Architect do here?"

Mode Switching

Modes are explicit — the human chooses the mode per session or per request.
A member never escalates from Ask to Agent autonomously.

If a member in Ask Mode determines that a task requires Agent Mode, it says so:

"This task requires file edits. Switch to Agent Mode to proceed, or I can describe the changes for you to apply manually."

Permission Profiles

Within Agent Mode, three permission profiles further constrain behavior:

Profile	What it allows
`Restricted`	Read-only tools only — effectively Ask Mode with structured output
`Standard`	All tools; dangerous terminal commands require approval; default
`Trusted`	All tools; file edits auto-approved; catastrophic commands still blocked

Catastrophic commands are blocked universally regardless of profile:
rm -rf /, mkfs, dd if=/dev/zero, DROP DATABASE, git push --force origin main

Context Assembly

In both modes, context is assembled from the same 10 sources before a member acts:

Active/selected file(s)
Explicitly @mentioned files
Hybrid search results (vector + keyword)
Web search results (if tool available)
Codebase architectural understanding
Project rules (.agenthood/rules.md)
Persistent memory (.agenthood/memory.json)
Active member skills
Conversation history
Question classification result

The difference between modes is not what is known — it is what is done with that knowledge.