# Plan mode

> Think before building: the agent reads your project, asks the right questions, and writes the plan before touching anything.

Plan mode is thinking before building. You switch the chat from making changes to making a plan: the agent reads your project, asks you the questions that matter, and writes down what should be built before anything is touched. For ambitious features, the half hour it takes routinely saves an afternoon of corrections.

Plan mode is a paid feature, available on Starter and above.

## When to reach for it

Build mode is the right default for most requests. Plan mode earns its keep when:

- The feature is **large**: a member area, a checkout flow, a whole admin section.
- The feature has **rules you have not fully pinned down** yourself yet. Writing the plan forces the decisions into the open.
- The change **cuts across the app**: data model, several pages, and permissions all at once.
- You are about to spend **serious tokens** and want the approach agreed before the meter runs.

For "make the button blue", just build.

## How it works

### Switch to Plan

Below the chat input is the **Build / Plan** toggle. Flip it to Plan; a banner confirms the mode. From here the agent can read everything and change nothing: no code edits, no schema changes, nothing to undo afterward.

### Describe the feature and answer the questions

Give it the goal the way you would to a colleague. The agent reads your project first, so its questions are informed ones: which of your existing pages the feature touches, what happens in the edge cases, who is allowed to see what. Answer in plain language; the questions usually surface exactly the decisions you had not made yet.

### Get the written plan

The agent produces a structured plan: the goal, what is in and out of scope, the approach, the parts of your app it will touch, and any questions still open. Read it critically; this is the cheapest possible moment to change your mind. Ask for revisions in plain language ("phase two is too big, move the reports out of scope").

### Flip to Build and point at the plan

Switch the toggle back to **Build** and tell the agent to build the plan. Because the thinking is done, the build lands with far fewer surprises, and you can go phase by phase if the plan is staged.

## What it costs

Plan mode turns are normal AI requests, and they always run on the most capable model regardless of your [model picker](/docs/building/choosing-a-model) setting, because planning quality pays for itself. In practice a planning conversation is a small fraction of what the build itself costs, and a fraction that reliably reduces the total: features built from a plan need fewer corrective rounds.

## Frequently asked

#### Can Plan mode change my app by accident?

No. The mode is a hard boundary, not a suggestion: in Plan, the agent has no ability to modify code or data. That is what makes it safe to think out loud in.

#### Where does the plan live afterward?

In the chat, like any other message. Keep the planning conversation and its build in the same chat so the agent building it has the full context.

#### Can I plan one part and build another?

Yes, the toggle is per message, not per project. A common rhythm on big features: plan, build phase one, come back to Plan for phase two once you have seen phase one in the preview.

#### Why is it paid?

Plan mode always runs on the most capable model, and it exists for exactly the kind of ambitious builds that paid plans are sized for. On Free, the toggle shows with a lock, and describing your feature carefully in Build mode remains a fine substitute for smaller things.