Later, scratchpads and loops

Three places in Zero’s window keep things that you and your agents come back to:

• Later: work to pick up another time. Each item has a short note and everything behind it.
• Scratchpads: Markdown notes that you and every agent can read and write.
• Loops: named instructions that you give an agent when you type @name.

Each has a button on the window’s left rail, below Inbox, in this order. Point at a button to see its name. To open the window, choose Show Zero, ⌘ 0, in the menu bar icon’s menu.

Save something for later

A Later item has two parts. The note says in one sentence what to do. The artifact holds everything behind it in full, such as an agent’s findings or a plan.

Items come to Later in four ways.

Write one yourself.

1. Click Later on the rail.
2. At the top of its list, click the compose button, Write one.
3. Fill in What’s to be done, in a sentence.
4. Fill in Anything behind it, in Markdown (optional), or leave it empty.
5. Click Save.

Ask a task to save one. The agent writes the note and the artifact from what it has learned. There are two ways:

• Right-click the task in the tasks sidebar and choose Save for later.
• To save one of the agent’s answers, point at the answer, click its ⋯ and choose Save for later.

The agent saves the item after its current turn.

Move a whole task there. Right-click a task in the tasks sidebar or its dot in the control bar, or open the ⋯ menu in the window’s title bar. Then choose Move to Later. The task leaves the sidebar, and it and its workers pause. Zero doesn’t archive the task. In Later, it shows with a Task pill.

Agents suggest them. An agent can save an item unasked when it expects you’ll want to come back to it. These items go under Suggested by agents at the foot of the Later list. The heading shows how many there are. Click the heading to show them. Zero deletes a suggestion a week after it was saved, unless you click Keep.

Use a Later item

Click an item in the Later list to open it. The item shows its note, the task it came from, when it was saved, the links and files that came with it, and its artifact. Click the task’s name to open that task.

Right-click an item in the list for Copy link, Done or Not done, and Delete or Dismiss. For a task you moved there, the menu also has Resume task. For a suggestion, it also has Keep.

An item’s link looks like zero://later/<id>. To point an agent at the item, paste the link in a message.

How agents use Later

Agents save, list, read and change Later items with the zero later command, for example:

zero later save "Retry the flaky login test with a longer timeout" --file notes.md

A task keeps at most three suggestions open at a time. See The zero command.

Zero keeps Later items in ~/.zero/later.

Keep notes in a scratchpad

Scratchpads are Markdown notes in folders that you and your agents share. Use them for plans, checklists, findings, or anything else for an agent to read.

Click Scratchpads on the rail. At the top of the list:

• Search finds pads by their title or folder. The ×, Clear, empties the search.
• New scratchpad makes a pad.
• New folder makes a folder.

Right-click a folder for New scratchpad here, New folder inside and Show in Finder.

Right-click a pad for:

Zero keeps each pad as a Markdown file in ~/.zero/scratchpads. Each of your scratchpad folders is a folder there.

Write in a scratchpad

Click a pad to open it. Type its title over Untitled at the top. Write the text below it, in Markdown. Zero saves as you type. Under the title, the pad shows its folder and the time of the last edit.

The formatting buttons and their keys:

In a table, right-click a cell for Add row below, Add column after, Delete row and Delete column. The Add row and Add column buttons also add rows and columns.

When an agent changes the pad while you type, Zero says Changed elsewhere while you were typing. Click Keep mine to save your version. Click Take theirs to load the agent’s version.

Hand a scratchpad to an agent

Every pad has a link, zero://pad/<id>. Every heading in a pad has a link too. When a message has one of these links, the agent reads that pad, or that part of it.

• The whole pad: click Copy link beside the pad’s title, or right-click the pad in the list. The arrow beside Copy link has Copy Markdown link. It also has a link for each heading, under Link to a section.
• One section: right-click in the pad’s text and choose Copy link to “
  ”. Copy link to scratchpad in the same menu copies the link for the whole pad.
• From the composer: in a task’s composer, click + › Scratchpad and pick the pad. Zero puts its link in your message.
• By dragging: drag a pad from the list into a message.

Agents in Zero read, write, search and organise pads with Zero’s scratchpad tools. They give you links to what they wrote. To keep one of an agent’s messages as a pad, point at the message, click its ⋯ and choose Save to a scratchpad. The pad goes into the Saved folder, named after the first line of the message.

Give an agent a loop

A loop is an instruction for an agent, kept under a name. For example, @review can hold how you like changes reviewed. When you type @review in a message, the agent gets the loop’s words with the message. Your message still shows @review.

A loop can name other loops in its text, such as @tests. Zero doesn’t add those loops’ words: the names tell the agent which loops to start workers on. The lead follows @review, and its workers follow @tests.

Make a loop

1. Click Loops on the rail. At the top of the list, click the compose button, New loop. When no loop is open, the page also has a New loop button.
2. Type a name and click Create. Zero writes the name in lower case, with hyphens for spaces.
3. Under the loop’s name, write What this loop is for, in a line. This line shows in the list and when you type @.
4. Write the instruction below it, in Markdown. Zero saves as you type.

At the foot of a loop:

• Names lists the loops that it names. Click one to open it.
• Ran by lists the tasks that used it, as a lead or as a worker, with their state and the time. Click a task to open it. A new loop says No session has run it yet.

Copy name is beside the loop’s name. It copies @name, ready to paste into a message. Right-click a loop in the list for Copy name and Delete.

Zero keeps each loop as a Markdown file in ~/.zero/loops.

Use a loop

• In a message: type @ in a task’s composer. Zero suggests your loops first, each with what it’s for. Pick one with ↑ ↓ and Tab or Return.
• From an agent: an agent lists your loops with zero loops, reads one with zero loop <name>, and starts a worker on one with zero spawn --loop <name>. See The zero command and Tasks and workers.