Until 15.18, Atlarix asked you to pick one of five work modes before you typed: Explore, Plan, Build, Debug or Review. Now there are three. Explore, Plan and Build stay. Debug and Review are the /debug and /review commands, and they work in any mode. Here is why.

Almost nobody picked Debug or Review

We looked at three weeks of real turns, from October 26 to November 14, leaving out our own and test accounts. About 84% of turns ran in Build, 11% in Explore and 4% in Plan. Debug ran one turn. Review ran none. A choice that people skip still costs them something: one more thing to read, and one more question before they can start.

What each mode is for now

Explore answers questions about your code and reads files, without changing anything. Plan works out the steps for a change and lays them out as a plan you review before anything is built, without touching your code. Build makes the change. Only Build changes your code, so the mode tells you at a glance whether Atlarix can edit it. If you ask for a change from Explore or Plan, Atlarix asks before it switches to Build. Shift+Tab cycles the three modes in the app and the CLI, and VS Code, Zed and JetBrains show the same three.

Debug and Review became commands

Debugging and reviewing are things you do once in a while, inside whatever you are already doing, so they work better as commands than as places to stay. Type /debug with what went wrong, or /review with what to look at, and Atlarix runs the instructions the old modes used, adjusted to run in whatever mode the chat is in. Codex and Claude Code also make /review a command rather than a mode.

Your old chats still open

A chat you saved in Debug or Review opens in Build, and so does any setting that still names a removed mode. Nothing you saved is lost, and you don't need to change anything.

Three modes that each do one clear thing, and two commands for the jobs you do now and then. The rest of what shipped is in Atlarix 15.18.

FAQ

What are the work modes in Atlarix?

Explore, Plan and Build. Explore and Plan read your code without changing it; only Build edits your code.

Where did Debug and Review mode go?

Since Atlarix 15.18 they are the /debug and /review commands. They run the old modes' instructions, adjusted to work in whatever mode the chat is in.

What happens to a chat I saved in Debug or Review mode?

It opens in Build. Nothing is lost.

Originally published at atlarix.dev.