The inbox and asks

When an agent needs something from you, it sends an ask: a question, a choice, an approval or a command to run on your Mac. Every ask lands in the inbox, from tasks in Zero and from agents outside Zero, such as Claude Code in a terminal. You answer it once, wherever you see it first.

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Open the inbox

Your asks show in two places:

• The inbox panel, beside the control bar on the right edge of your screen. Point at the tray icon at the top of the bar to peek at the panel, or click the icon to keep it open. A red dot on the icon means at least one ask is waiting. See The control bar.
• The Inbox page in Zero’s window. Click the tray icon in the window’s left rail. Its tip reads Inbox. A red badge on the icon shows how many asks are waiting on you.

The Talk hotkey works from any app: ⌥ Space unless you’ve changed it. It opens the inbox panel on the oldest waiting ask and starts dictation, so you can answer by speaking. See Answer by speaking.

When Bar in the window puts the control bar in Zero’s window, clicking the bar’s inbox icon opens the Inbox page instead of the panel. Pointing at it still peeks at the panel.

Read the inbox panel

The panel lists the asks waiting on you as cards, oldest at the top. Answers you’ve given since you opened the panel stay in the list until you open it again. When nothing waits, the panel shows Inbox empty.

Each card has:

• The question in bold. For a command, it reads Allow this command?
• Who asked under it: the agent’s name, and the title it gave the ask.
• Why, in the agent’s words. Zero folds long text to three lines. Click it to read it all, and click again to fold it.
• A command box, when the ask is about a command. Copy copies the command. A long command shows Show all and Show less. When the command runs a script, the script shows under the command, with Show the whole script for a long one. When the command runs in a folder other than the agent’s own, that folder shows under it.
• The answers as numbered rows, or a box for your reply.

Pull requests, commits, issues and Slack channels named in the question or the why are links, as they are in a conversation. See Following and integrations.

Point at a card or click it to select it. When more than one ask is waiting, Zero dims the cards you haven’t selected, so you can see which one your keys answer.

Pointing at an agent’s mark on the bar instead shows just that agent. See Read one agent’s history.

Answer an ask

Click an answer’s row, or type its number.

• Number keys. In the panel, 1, 2 and 3 pick the first three answers of the selected card. Every row shows its number, but only the first three answer from the keyboard. Click any row after the third.
• Arrows. ↑ and ↓ select the card above or below.
• Typing. Start typing and your words go into the selected card’s reply box. When the card has an answer that ends in “…”, such as Suggest something else…, that answer opens into a box and takes your words. When the card has neither, your words go into the message box of the agent you’re looking at. Return puts the cursor in that box without typing anything.
• Sending. Press Return in a reply box to send, or click the paper plane at its right. Paste an image with ⌘ V and its file path goes into your reply, for the agent to open.

Once you pick an answer:

1. The row turns orange with a spinner. For a moment, you can take it back. See Take an answer back.
2. The row turns green with a tick once the agent has it. The other rows fade.
3. When Zero can’t reach the agent, the row turns red with a cross. Point at it to read Couldn’t reach the agent. Click to try again., and click it to send the answer again.

Three seconds after your answer lands, the panel selects the next waiting ask. To stay on the card you answered, turn off Move to the next ask in Settings › Composer and inbox › Inbox.

Press Delete to remove a finished card from the panel.

Answer by speaking

1. Press the Talk hotkey, ⌥ Space unless you’ve changed it. The panel opens on the oldest waiting ask and starts listening.
2. Speak your answer. Your words show in the card’s reply box, or in the box of its answer that ends in “…”. A red waveform in place of the microphone shows that Zero is listening.
3. Press the Talk hotkey again to stop listening, then press Return to send.

In the panel, Space starts and stops dictation too, and so does the microphone button in a reply box.

Dictation needs a box to type into. On a card with only fixed answers, such as Yes and No, and no message box for the agent, click an answer or press its number instead.

To change the hotkey, go to Settings › General › Zero › Talk hotkey. Click the button and press the new keys. It needs at least one of ⌘, ⌥, ⌃ or ⇧. Esc cancels. To choose the microphone, go to Settings › Composer and inbox › Dictation › Microphone. It’s System default unless you pick one.

Take an answer back

Picked the wrong answer? Press Esc in the inbox panel while the row is still orange. The card goes back to waiting, with nothing chosen, and you can answer again.

You have 2 seconds unless you change it. Set the time in Settings › Composer and inbox › Inbox › Take-back window, from 0 to 5 seconds in half-second steps. At 0, every answer goes at once.

Taking back works only in the inbox panel. Once the row turns green, the agent has your answer.

The kinds of ask

A question

The agent asks something and waits for your words. The card shows the question and a box that reads Reply to and the agent’s name. Type or dictate your answer and press Return.

A choice

The agent asks a question with answers to pick from, each a numbered row. Picking an answer that ends in “…” opens a box so you can say more, and the agent gets the answer and your words together.

One choice has its own look: Is this task done?, in purple, with Done and Not yet…. An agent asks it when it isn’t sure its work is finished. Done marks the task done. Not yet… opens a box to say what’s left.

An approval

The agent asks whether it can do something, such as “Delete the old build folder?”. The answers are Yes, No and Suggest something else…. Both No and Suggest something else… count as declining.

A command to run

The agent wants to run a command on your Mac and see its output. The card reads Allow this command?, with the command in a box and why the agent needs it above. The answers are:

While the command runs, the card reads Running command… and its output scrolls in the box. Stop, in red, stops it. When the command has a terminal of its own, Terminal shows it in place of the output, and Output switches back.

Then the card reads Ran command, Command failed (exit and its exit code ), or Command rejected. When Zero lost track of the command while it ran, the card reads Lost track of the command, with Lost: check what it did before running it again under it.

When several agents ask for the same command in the same folder, they share one card. Its byline reads, for example, “and 2 other agents”. One answer goes to all of them.

A command for you to run yourself

Sometimes the agent can’t run a command itself, for example because it has to run on another machine. The card then shows two steps:

1. Run this, with the command. Click Copy, run it where it needs to run, and copy what it printed.
2. Then tell and the agent’s name. Click Paste output to put what you copied into the reply, then press Return to send.

A note

A note tells you where an agent stands. It needs no answer and never shows in the inbox’s list. Notes show in the agent’s view in the panel. A note that says the agent is blocked has a red Blocked label.

A permission

Before a tool acts, the agent’s CLI can ask for your permission. Zero turns the request into an ask.

Claude Code can run in a terminal that Zero starts. It can also work beside a drop folder, a synced folder that agents on other machines use to reach your inbox. In both cases, the question says what Claude Code wants to do, such as Run a command?, Edit a file?, Write a file? or Fetch a page?. The box shows the command, file or address.

The answers are Allow, Always allow, Deny, and Deny, and say why…. Always allow shows only when Claude Code suggests a rule to remember. Only the Deny answers count as declining.

From a task in Zero, the question reads Allow this command? or Allow these changes?, and the answers are the agent’s own:

Answer in a task’s conversation

When a task in Zero asks you something, its ask also shows in the task’s conversation, docked above the composer. It’s the same ask: answer it here or in the inbox, and it’s answered in both.

The strip at the top of the docked card says what it is:

• Question, or Questions when the agent asks several at once. When the agent gave a question a heading, the strip shows that instead.
• Approval, with a shield, when the agent’s CLI asks permission.
• Run on your Mac, Approval or Question for asks the agent sent through Zero.

One card shows at a time. When several are waiting, the strip shows where you are, such as 1 of 3, with arrows to step between them.

To answer from the keyboard:

• When the composer is empty, type 1 to 9 to pick that answer of the first ask the agent sent through Zero. This doesn’t work while the CLI’s own question or permission request is docked.
• On a permission request, Return picks the first answer when you’re not typing in the composer.

A permission request folds a long command after eight lines. To read the rest, click Show all and the number of lines.

Some questions ask for a secret, such as a password. The agent asks these only in the task’s conversation, never in the inbox, as a form with a Secret box and an Answer button. The form also shows for a question before it reaches the inbox, with the answers as buttons and a box that reads Your answer or Or say something else.

In the conversation itself, each ask the agent sent through Zero is a step that reads Asked, or Asked to run for a command, then what it asked. At its right is what became of it: Waiting on you, Running, Ran, Failed (exit and the code ), Declined, Expired, or the answer you picked.

Find answered asks on the Inbox page

The Inbox page in Zero’s window lists every ask in a table. To open it, click the tray icon in the window’s left rail. It always opens on Waiting on you.

Its sidebar has:

• Waiting on you, with how many: the asks waiting, oldest first.
• Answered: the last 50 asks you’ve answered, newest first.
• Agents: one row for each agent that has asked you something. An orange dot and a count mean that agent has asks waiting, and a grey dot means none. Click an agent to see its waiting asks, then its answered ones.

The table’s columns are:

Click a row to open its card under it, and answer it there as in the panel. The oldest waiting ask opens on its own. Click the × at the card’s right to close it. Its tip reads Fold it back. The number keys, and Esc to take an answer back, work in the inbox panel, not on this page.

Read one agent’s history

Point at an agent’s mark on the control bar, or click it, to see just that agent in the panel. From the top:

• Earlier: a short list of what came before, newest at the bottom. It shows six rows at a time and scrolls. Each row has how long ago it was, an icon for its kind, and one line. The line is You: and your message, the agent’s name and its note, or an ask with what became of it: · rejected, · ran, exit 0, or the answer. Closed marks where the agent was removed or went offline.
• The latest exchange: your last message, and what the agent has said since. While it works on your message, a row reads the agent’s name and is working….
• The latest answer, for a task in Zero, when it’s newer than the task’s last ask or note. The card shows the task’s name, how long ago it answered, and the first part of the answer. Open task opens it in Zero’s window.
• The asks still waiting from this agent.
• A message box, Message and the agent’s name, when Zero can reach the agent.

Click a row in Earlier to read it in full under the list: the whole message, or the ask with its answer and, for a command, its output. Click it again to close it. To start a message that quotes a row, point at it and click the arrow at its right. The arrow’s tip reads Reply to this.

When nothing has come from the agent yet, the panel reads Nothing from this agent yet.

When an ask expires

An ask you don’t answer in time expires and leaves the inbox and the Inbox page. In a task’s conversation, its step reads Expired.

To change the default, go to Settings › Composer and inbox › Inbox › Ask expiry. It takes 5 to 1,440 minutes, in steps of 5.

An agent can also withdraw an ask it no longer needs, and it leaves the inbox the same way. When the ask was a command that’s running, the command stops.

Get told when an ask arrives

How you hear about a new ask depends on where you are:

• In Zero, with Zero in front and you at the Mac: a sound plays and the control bar shows the ask.
• Away from Zero, in another app, away from the Mac or with the screen locked: a macOS notification. For an agent outside Zero, it’s titled with the agent’s name and shows the question, Wants to run: and the command, or Wants your approval: and what it wants.

An ask from a task in Zero counts as the task’s notification. The task’s state turns to Needs you, and you hear the sound for that state. Clicking a task’s notification opens the task in Zero’s window. While you’re in Zero, a task that needs you plays its sound. When it still needs you five minutes later and you haven’t used the Mac since the sound, the notification goes too.

A notification goes away by itself when you answer or the ask expires or is withdrawn. It also goes when you look at the task, the inbox or the agent.

While Zero’s window is open, Zero’s icon in the Dock shows how many tasks need you.

These settings are in Settings › General. Open Settings with ⌘ , or the gear at the foot of the window’s left rail.

macOS’s own settings for Zero, and Focus, can quiet its notifications as they do for any app.

Settings for the inbox

Most are in Settings › Composer and inbox.

Zero records every ask and answer in ~/.zero/asks.jsonl. To open it, right-click the control bar and choose Open Log.

The iPhone app, coming soon, shows the same asks and has a Take back button on an answer you’ve just picked. See The iPhone app.