Playbook Mode
While a Playbook is under review, the chat is dedicated to that Playbook's approve / reject / discuss flow. To return to a free-form conversation, exit Playbook mode first.
Design intent vs shipped
The chat-locked-during-review pattern described below is the intended behaviour for safety reasons (so an ambiguous "yes" can't accidentally approve a step that isn't the one you meant). The exact in-app affordances — pause/resume controls, the lock indicator on the chat input, the discard flow — may differ in your build, and some of this may not yet be fully shipped. If your build behaves differently, ping your Tessell contact.
Why this exists
When Escher proposes a remediation, it presents a Bundle — the exact steps it will execute, with full blast-radius information. The next things you do in chat are scoped to that Bundle: approve a step, reject a step, ask about a step's blast radius, request a different remediation strategy.
If chat were free-form during a Playbook, it would be easy to send an unrelated message and accidentally approve (or skip) a write step. So the chat enters a focused mode and only accepts Bundle-related actions until you decide what to do with the Playbook.
What you'll see
When a Playbook is active, the chat input shows:
🔒 Playbook in review — approve, reject, or ask about a step.
To start a new conversation, exit the Playbook first.Available actions in this mode:
- Approve step / Approve all — moves to the next step or runs the Bundle
- Reject step / Reject all — cancels the Bundle, no changes are made
- Ask about this step — Escher answers questions about the step (blast radius, alternative approaches, evidence) without leaving Playbook mode
- Request a different approach — Escher generates a new candidate Bundle
How to leave Playbook mode
If you want to ask an unrelated question in the middle of a Playbook review:
- Click Pause Playbook at the top of the Bundle review panel
- The Bundle is preserved — no changes are executed
- The chat returns to normal mode and you can ask anything
- To return to the paused Bundle, click Resume in the right-side Activity panel
If you don't want to come back to the Playbook at all, click Discard Playbook instead — it cancels the Bundle entirely and frees the chat.
TIP
Discarding a Playbook never modifies any cloud resource. Escher doesn't execute anything until you explicitly approve a step. Discarding throws away the proposed Bundle and the conversation that produced it.
What about long-running Runs?
Once you've approved a Bundle and execution starts, the Playbook moves from review to running. The chat is no longer locked — you can ask other questions while the Run executes in the background.
You'll get a notification (and a Slack message, if Slack is connected) when the Run completes or pauses for further approval.
Why not let me chat freely during review?
Two reasons:
- Safety. Approval gates only work if "yes" unambiguously means "execute step 3 of this Bundle." If chat were open, an off-topic "yes" to something else could be misread.
- Focus. Bundle review is a high-stakes moment — it's the last human checkpoint before a cloud change. Concentrating the chat on that decision keeps it from getting lost in conversation.
If this trade-off is wrong for your workflow, tell us — we're listening.
What's next
- Playbooks (developer reference) — the full lifecycle
- Reports, Findings, Plans — concepts the Bundle materializes from