Replace the separate /agent, /plan, and /yolo commands with a single /mode command that can either open a picker or switch directly by name or number. This keeps mode switching in one command surface and avoids duplicating similar commands for each mode.
4.4 KiB
Modes and Approvals
DeepSeek TUI has two related concepts:
- TUI mode: what kind of visible interaction you're in (Plan/Agent/YOLO).
- Approval mode: how aggressively the UI asks before executing tools.
TUI Modes
Press Tab to complete composer menus, queue a draft as a next-turn follow-up
while a turn is running, or cycle through the visible modes when the composer is
otherwise idle: Plan → Agent → YOLO → Plan.
Press Shift+Tab to cycle reasoning effort.
Run /mode to open the mode picker, or switch directly with /mode agent,
/mode plan, /mode yolo, /mode 1, /mode 2, or /mode 3.
- Plan: design-first prompting. Read-only investigation tools stay available; shell and patch execution stay off. Use this when you want to think out loud and produce a plan to hand to a human (yourself later, or a reviewer).
- Agent: multi-step tool use. Approvals for shell and paid tools (file writes are allowed without a prompt).
- YOLO: enables shell + trust mode and auto-approves all tools. Use only in trusted repos.
All three modes have access to the rlm tool. Inside its Python REPL, llm_query_batched fans out 1–16 cheap parallel child calls pinned to deepseek-v4-flash. The model reaches for it when work is decomposable.
Compatibility Notes
- Older settings files with
default_mode = "normal"still load asagent; saving rewrites the normalized value.
Escape Key Behavior
Esc is a cancel stack, not a mode switch.
- Close slash menus or transient UI first.
- Cancel the active request if a turn is running.
- Discard a queued draft if the composer is empty.
- Clear the current input if text is present.
- Otherwise it is a no-op.
Approval Mode
You can override approval behavior at runtime:
/config
# edit the approval_mode row to: suggest | auto | never
Legacy note: /set approval_mode ... was retired in favor of /config.
suggest(default): uses the per-mode rules above.auto: auto-approves all tools (similar to YOLO approval behavior, but without forcing YOLO mode).never: blocks any tool that isn't considered safe/read-only.
Small-Screen Status Behavior
When terminal height is constrained, the status area compacts first so header/chat/composer/footer remain visible:
- Loading and queued status rows are budgeted by available height.
- Queued previews collapse to compact summaries when full previews do not fit.
/queueworkflows remain available; compact status only affects rendering density.
Workspace Boundary and Trust Mode
By default, file tools are restricted to the --workspace directory. Enable trust mode to allow file access outside the workspace:
/trust
YOLO mode enables trust mode automatically.
MCP Behavior
MCP tools are exposed as mcp_<server>_<tool> and use the same approval flow as built-in tools. Read-only MCP helpers may auto-run in suggestive approval modes; MCP tools with possible side effects require approval.
See MCP.md.
Related CLI Flags
Run deepseek --help for the canonical list. Common flags:
-p, --prompt <TEXT>: one-shot prompt mode (prints and exits)--model <MODEL>: when using thedeepseekfacade, forward a DeepSeek model override to the TUI--workspace <DIR>: workspace root for file tools--yolo: start in YOLO mode-r, --resume <ID|PREFIX|latest>: resume a saved session-c, --continue: resume the most recent session in this workspace--max-subagents <N>: clamp to1..=20--mouse-capture/--no-mouse-capture: opt in or out of internal mouse scrolling, transcript selection, right-click context actions, and transcript scrollbar dragging. Mouse capture is enabled by default on non-Windows terminals so drag selection copies only transcript text and stays scoped to the transcript pane; hold Shift while dragging or use--no-mouse-capturefor raw terminal selection. It defaults off on Windows (CMD/terminal mouse-escape spam in the prompt) and inside JetBrains JediTerm — PyCharm/IDEA/CLion/etc. — where the terminal advertises mouse support but forwards SGR mouse events as raw text (#878, #898). Use--mouse-captureto opt in anywhere it's defaulted off. On Windows, raw terminal selection may cross the right sidebar because the terminal, not the TUI, owns the selection.--profile <NAME>: select config profile--config <PATH>: config file path-v, --verbose: verbose logging