Ask or Agent: when to hand over the pen

There is a point in a writing session when you stop wanting another answer and start wanting to see the scene changed.

“Why does this interrogation lose pressure?” is a question. “Tighten this interrogation without making Mara less dangerous” is a goal. The first asks for a judgment you can think with. The second asks the AI to read, act, and check whether the new version still does the job.

Ask and Agent Mode share the same conversation in Inkwell, but they serve different moments in the work.

Ask when the answer is the useful result

Use Ask when you want a diagnosis, a second opinion, or a way into the next decision:

• Where does the power turn in this scene?
• Is the midpoint arriving before the protagonist has earned it?
• What does Mara know here that the audience does not?
• Which setup is the ending paying off?

Ask reads the relevant work and answers in the conversation. It can help you name the problem without changing the draft. That distance is valuable when you are still deciding what you believe.

Edit selection when the target is already obvious

Not every revision needs a conversation or an agent run. If the problem is the sentence under your cursor, select it and ask for the change: make the threat quieter, cut the exposition, keep the joke but lose the wink.

Inline Edit returns alternatives against the original passage. Compare them where they would live, accept one, or reject them all. The scope is the selection, so the rest of the scene stays out of the way.

Choose a skill when the craft job is known

A specialist skill is the right tool when the pass already has a name. Run continuity when you need continuity. Run coverage when you want a reader’s report. Run Voice Match when two characters have started sounding alike.

The boundary is part of the value. A report-only skill returns findings. An editing skill proposes changes for review. You know the job before the pass begins, and you can judge the result against that job.

Use Agent Mode when the work may take more than one move

Agent Mode starts with a goal for a scene or act. It reads the work, chooses a useful action, reads the result, and decides whether the goal needs another move.

The action may be an exact line change. It may be a broader revision. The agent can call a specialist skill when the draft needs one, or pause to ask you when the next move depends on a creative choice only you should make.

The next move comes from what the agent finds and how the scene reads after the change.

The draft boundary stays visible

Agent Mode does its work on a separate result draft. The screenplay you started from stays intact while the run explores. Each landed edit leaves a save point, so the path through the work remains recoverable.

You can pause a live run, answer a question in the same composer, or stop and review useful partial work. When the goal is met, the result opens for review. Nothing moves into the draft you keep until you decide it belongs there.

That boundary makes a larger assignment practical. The agent gets room to work through the scene; the writer keeps control of the screenplay.

A simple decision rule

Use Ask when you want to understand the choice.

Use Edit selection when the change is already under your cursor.

Use a skill when the craft pass has a name.

Use Agent Mode when the goal is clear and the next move should depend on what the work reveals.

The amount of initiative changes. The final decision does not.