Choosing the Engine, in Practice

In short

Commands that start with a slash don't talk to the model: they talk to the tool.
/model opens the engine picker and also becomes the default for new sessions.
/context shows you how much of the session you've already used.
Asking "use a more powerful model" in words changes nothing.

There are two ways to talk to it

Inside a session you can write two different kinds of things, and it's worth telling them apart right away.

A normal request — "fix this file for me" — goes to the model, which reasons and acts.
A command that starts with a slash — /model — never reaches the model: the tool runs it, the gear we talked about in chapter 2.

Knowing this saves you from a classic mistake: asking in words to switch the model. It doesn't work, and now you know why — you'd be asking the current engine to change itself.

Switching engines

In the desktop app it's a dropdown menu: it sits next to the send button, under the box where you type. Open it, pick the model, and from then on that's the one working. You can switch it again from the same menu whenever you want.

From the terminal it's a command: type /model and the same picker opens up. The model you pick also becomes your default for the sessions you open afterward.

Keep in mind the rule from the lesson on cost: you pick the engine at the start. If you realize halfway through that you got it wrong, the clean move isn't to turn the dial on the fly — it's to close the session and start over with the right one.

Seeing how much you're using: /context

The other command worth knowing from the start is /context: it shows you how much of the session's space you've already used and with what.

At first it'll feel like something only an accountant would care about. It matters once the session drags on: remember that the model rereads everything at every turn? /context is the dashboard that tells you when it's time to clean up instead of piling more on. We'll come back to this properly in the "What it knows about you" chapter.

The other commands, when you need them

Slash commands work in the desktop app too: you type them in the box just like you would in the terminal, or browse them from the + button next to the text box.

There are quite a few more, and you'll run into them at the right moment instead of all at once now: permissions, clearing the conversation, settings. The full official list is there when you need it. For now these two are enough — one to pick who's working, one to see how much attention you're spending.

What's next

You've installed it, you know where to open it, and you know how to pick the engine. In the next lesson you give it its first task: small, yours, and chosen on purpose so it succeeds.

Did you get it?

Two minutes, no grade. Trying to answer — even getting it wrong — cements the concepts far more than rereading. Not in the mood? Skip it: the lesson still counts as complete.

How do you switch models inside a session?

What is /context for?

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