Cockpit controls

Keyboard controls, Agent Bridge modes, and the Stack TUI layout.

Documents Stack 0.2.0-dev.20260703.2. Expanded in the 2026-07-03 changelog entry — Lights panel, slash commands, gardener core focus, and goal-mode chat availability.

Stack is a terminal cockpit: Agent input on the bottom, status rails on the sides, and a center pane that switches between goal views, transcripts, and ops panels.

Launch

stack          # open the cockpit
stack doctor   # verify harness, stackd, and config before a long session

Stack auto-starts stackd on 127.0.0.1:8792 when healthy. See stackd.

Agent input

Key	Action
Enter	Send the prompt to Codex (or steer during an active turn)
Ctrl+Enter	Queue the current input for the next turn
Esc	Interrupt the active turn, or clear input when idle
Tab	Move focus: Agent input → model → effort → environment → Local Research → hosted optimizers → remote SMR → session history
/exit	Quit Stack explicitly

Codex is the default harness. Configure it in Quickstart § Configure with Codex.

Slash commands

Type / in the active input to open the slash menu. Current commands:

Command	Action
/help / /?	Show commands
/exit / /quit	Quit Stack
/goal ...	Manage the current goal
/gardener [message] / /g	Focus the gardener in the core panel or message it
/monitor ... / /m	Toggle, show, hide, focus, or message the monitor
`/lights on	off`	Open or close the right Lights panel
/threads / /p	Open thread navigation; /threads new starts a worker thread
`/mode eng	research//work_mode`	Record the future work-mode flag
`/env dev	staging	prod`	Change environment
`/provider chatgpt	cursor//harness`	Change worker provider
`/profile research	engineering	product`	Change Stack profile
/model [filter]	Select worker model
/effort	Cycle reasoning effort
/efforts	Open the Efforts workstream panel
`/subagents on	off`	Toggle subagents
/experimental	Open experimental controls
`/usage daily	weekly	cumulative`	Refresh account and plan usage
/ops	Open ops panel
/actors	Toggle actor status
/agent	Focus worker chat
/agent-view / /a	Toggle full agent event stream
/permissions / /perm	Review telemetry/privacy choices
/settings telemetry	Open telemetry settings
/config	Open editable Stack config
/details / /d	Toggle verbose transcript details
/rails / /b	Toggle side rails
/clear / /c	Clear the draft input

Lights panel

/lights on opens the right-panel cockpit without changing the active core panel. The Threads section is scrollable and filterable by status, role, viewed/unviewed state, id, or text. Selecting a worker thread opens the worker lane; selecting a gardener thread opens the gardener in the core panel.

Lights also summarizes gardener inbox/target, active actor counts, hosted cloud state, local runtime state, and account usage.

Agent Bridge (x)

Press x to toggle local-only vs remote-only bridge mode.

Mode	Left rail shows
Local	Local GEPA / optimizer jobs and local research state
Remote	Auth, hosted optimizers, live SMR runs, Factories, mediation target

Keep modes separate so Codex does not mix local service actions with remote owner-route actions. Start remote ops with the stack_status MCP tool (see Stack MCP).

Environment (dev / staging / prod)

When the environment control is focused:

Key	Action
j / k	Move across dev, staging, and prod
r	Refresh account, hosted optimizers, and remote SMR snapshot

Set API keys per environment in Configuration.

Local Research (GEPA)

When Local Research is focused:

Key	Action
Enter	Start the local GEPA service (if installed)
r	Refresh job list
j / k	Move through recent optimizer jobs

See Optimizers for task setup.

Hosted optimizers

When hosted optimizers are focused:

Key	Action
r	Refresh jobs from the selected environment
j / k	Select a job
o	Cycle artifact names for the selected job
v / d / c	Stage preview, download, or cancel
Enter	Confirm the staged action

Remote SMR and Factory

When Remote SMR is focused:

Key	Action
r	Refresh remote jobs
j / k	Select a run
f	Cycle Factories
t	Cycle mediation target (run → Factory → hosted optimizer)
m	Stage a message to the selected run or Factory project
o	Cycle WorkProduct / artifact outputs
v / d / l	Preview output, download, or preview last saved download
Enter	Confirm staged action

Downloads persist under .stack/downloads/<environment>/<run-id>/ and survive TUI restarts.

Ops panel modes

Press p on the ops panel to cycle Actors → Local → Synth Hosted.

Actors shows Codex subagent policy, primary actor state, and transcript-derived workers. Press enter in Actors mode to toggle subagents for the next launch (when STACK_CODEX_ARGS is not locked).

Sessions and logs

Stack writes session logs under .stack/sessions/. Remote visibility includes SMR runs, WorkProducts, artifacts, Factories, and hosted optimizer jobs for the selected environment.

Next

• Goal mode & monitor — long Codex runs with a sidecar feed
• Stack MCP — tools Codex uses for live ops
• Configuration — stack.config.json and env vars