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Ask Jev first

Ask Jev first is an approval mode Caffold adds to every agent. The agent asks about everything, and Jev, a decision model from TypeSafe, answers the routine requests for you. Only the requests that need a person reach you.

Set it up

  1. Open Settings → Jev Permissions.
  2. Enter your TypeSafe API key and choose Save key. Caffold asks Jev one test question and shows the answer under Last check.
  3. Optionally, write Extra rules that add to Jev's baseline or take away from it, and choose Save extra rules.
  4. In a Task's Composer, choose Ask Jev first in the Permissions menu.

Without a key, Ask Jev first stays in the menu and says what is missing.

Settings → Jev Permissions with a saved key and two extra rules

How it works

With Ask Jev first, the agent runs under whichever of its own modes asks the most. Before a request is shown to you, Caffold asks Jev one question: does this request need a person?

  • If Jev finds no reason to ask you, Caffold allows the request once. The conversation records the request with Jev's answer.
  • Otherwise the request comes to you as usual, and its card shows how sure Jev is, for example 80% sure this needs you.

Jev never refuses a request and never grants anything beyond this one request. If Jev cannot answer within five seconds, or the call fails for any reason, the request comes to you exactly as it would without Jev.

What Jev goes by

Jev's baseline is the standard of a coding agent's automatic permission mode. Your own instructions override that baseline, strongest first:

  1. the prompt that started the current turn;
  2. what your prompts in this Task settled (see below);
  3. the extra rules in Settings → Jev Permissions.

What your prompts settled

While a Task's turns run under Ask Jev first, Jev also reads each prompt you send there: does it say what the agent may or may not do in this Task? If it does, the prompt is kept, word for word, in that Task's record, and Jev takes it into account from then on. A later prompt overrides an earlier one it contradicts.

To see the record, choose Task details at the top right of the Task, then What your prompts settled, which appears while the Task uses Ask Jev first. Forget these clears the record; this cannot be undone.

What this Task's prompts settled: two kept prompts, oldest first, and Forget these

What Jev sees

Choosing Ask Jev first sends information to TypeSafe:

  • for each approval request: the request as the agent wrote it for you, with the agent's own title and reason; the Task's working directory; your extra rules; what your prompts in the Task settled; and the prompt that started the turn;
  • for each prompt you send in the Task: the prompt, with what the Task's prompts settled so far.

Under every other approval mode, nothing is sent to TypeSafe. The key and the rules are stored on the Mac; see Data and privacy.