Use Branches, Skills, and Exec

For many cases, Projects and Threads are enough. Once you get used to the flow, though, you will often want to choose more deliberately between branch switching, Skills, and Exec. This page is the quick guide for those three.

Switch branches

Branch actions live under the branch indicator near the top after you open a Project.

What you can do

• check the current branch
• switch to an existing local branch
• create a new branch and switch to it immediately

When creating a new branch, you can often choose a prefix such as feature/ or bugfix/, then type only the tail.

Things to remember

• branch actions are unavailable when the workspace is not managed by Git
• switching branches reloads the Thread list and related context for that branch
• when you want to try something on another branch first, the iPhone is enough to switch the entry point without returning to the Mac

Use Skills

Skills are reusable procedures enabled in that workspace. Open them from Skills in the + menu.

Basic flow

1. Open Skills from +.
2. Choose the Skill you want.
3. Add a little more context in Composer if needed.
4. Send it.

The selected Skill appears as a chip above Composer, and you can remove it on the spot if you change your mind.

When Skills are a good fit

• routine checks that follow a similar flow every time
• repo-specific checks
• requests where you do not want to restate the same procedure repeatedly

If the workspace has no Skills, the list is simply empty. In that case, plain Composer use is enough.

Use Exec

Exec is the entry point for one-off execution without switching away from the current Thread. You can open it from the + menu or from ... in the upper-right of the thread screen.

When Exec is a good fit

• you want one quick check
• you want to try something separate without cluttering the current Thread
• you want to inspect logs or file contents as a one-shot run

Exec has its own input and output area, and the result streams in place. You can also adjust the model, approval mode, reasoning level, and image attachments when needed.

Thread versus Exec

• use Thread for continuing conversation and ongoing work
• use Exec for one-off checks and experiments

If you are unsure, decide based on whether you want to keep the result as part of the conversation history.

When you only want to branch the conversation

If you want to split the conversation flow, not the Git branch, use Fork. It creates a copy of the current Thread so you can try another direction while preserving the original.

• keep the current context while trying an alternative
• compare without breaking the original Thread

Branches and Fork are different tools. Branches change the code workspace. Fork changes only the conversation path.