Talk to an agent
Every agent has one place to talk to it on each surface: Talk to this agent on its record on the website, and Talk to this agent… on its row in VS Code. Both offer the same five verbs, with the same sentence of help.
| Verb | What it does |
|---|---|
| Message | Send it a note it reads at its next tool call. |
| Ask | Ask a copy of it a question without interrupting it; runs on the machine the agent runs on, on that person's credits. |
| Review | Get a second opinion on its diff from another coding tool; runs on the machine the agent runs on, on that person's credits. |
| Handoff | Read the context it left so another agent can carry on. |
| Take over | Start an agent in your terminal that picks up its work from its handoff. |
Where each verb works
| Verb | Website | VS Code | Terminal | Agents (MCP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Message | Sends from the record | Sends | coord msg <agent> "text" | coordigent.message.send |
| Ask | Shows the command to copy | Asks, on the agent's machine | coord ask <agent> "question" | – |
| Review | Shows the command to copy | Reviews, on the agent's machine | coord review <agent> | – |
| Handoff | The record's Handoff card, and the command to copy | Shows its handoff | coord takeover <agent> --print, or coord handoff for this machine's | get_handoff |
| Take over | Shows the command to copy | Runs it in a terminal | coord takeover <agent> | – |
Ask and Review run a model on the machine the agent runs on, on that person's credits, so they are never a button on the website: on your own agent's record it shows the command to run there. On someone else's agent it says only they can run it. In VS Code, your agent on another machine says "on its machine only" beside both, and choosing one shows the command.
Some verbs do not apply to every agent, and both places say why instead of offering them:
- An agent that has ended keeps only Handoff and Take over.
- Ask works only with Claude Code agents.
- Review needs the checkout Coordigent recorded for the agent.
<agent> is the short id coord status shows, or the full id the website copies.