ncode Desktop The workspace
A tour of the window
The ncode window has five parts, from left to right: a narrow rail, the sidebar, the transcript with the message box under it, the agents pane, and, when you open it, the side chat.
The rail#
The narrow bar on the far left switches what the sidebar shows:
| Button | Opens |
|---|---|
| Chats | projects and conversations |
| Scheduled tasks | your scheduled tasks and a calendar (Scheduled tasks) |
| Workflows | the workflow cockpit (Workflows) |
| Deep research | your researches (Deep research) |
| Usage history | spend over the last 7, 30 or 90 days, against your monthly budget |
| Sun or moon | switches between light and dark mode |
| Gear | Settings (⌘+,) |
The sidebar#
In the Chats view the sidebar lists:
- Pinned conversations you want to keep at hand (pinned sessions are also never cleaned up);
- Projects, each with its conversations. A project's ⋯ menu has New conversation, Edit project…, Edit AGENTS.md and Remove project…;
- Conversations that belong to no project;
- Scheduled tasks, with each task's recent runs under it.
The search box at the top (⌘+K) filters conversations by title. Type three or more characters to also see Message matches from inside every conversation. ⌘+B hides and shows the sidebar.
A dot beside a conversation tells you it has something new, is running, is waiting for your answer, has queued messages or failed.
The transcript#
The middle column is the conversation. Your messages and the assistant's answers appear in order, and each run shows as a card with its status, its progress, its model, its time and its cost. A run's card has its controls: Pause, Stop, Continue or Resume, and Rewind when it changed files.
The conversation's header shows its title and a menu with Export, Rename, Rewind… and more. The message box at the bottom is the composer: see Composer, modes and goals.
The agents pane#
The right-hand pane shows what the agents of the conversation are doing. Its toolbar picks one of three views:
- Agents: one card per agent, each with its task, status, progress bar, tokens and cost. Show them as a Tree (who started whom) or a Grid, with Full cards or Compact cards.
- Timeline: every step of every agent on a time axis. Click a step to inspect it in full.
- Changes: the files the conversation changed, with their diffs, and the branches of isolated agents.
See Watching agents work.
The side chat#
A side chat is a second, narrower column that shows one run on its own, with a small message box of its own. Use it to follow one run, or talk about it, while the main transcript keeps going. Open it with the Open in side chat button on a run's card; ⌘+Shift+S opens and closes it.
Drag the edges between the columns to resize them, or use Shift+⌥+← and Shift+⌥+→.
The footer#
The bottom of the sidebar shows the app version, how much memory ncode uses, and a button that lists the keyboard shortcuts.
Closing and quitting#
- Closing the window only hides it. Runs keep going and notifications still arrive. Click the ncode icon in the Dock, or use the menu bar icon, to bring it back. The menu bar icon also lists conversations Waiting for you.
- Quitting (⌘+Q) asks first. The dialog says what is still running. Quitting stops running work; paused workflows keep their journal and resume where they stopped.