AI Chat Modes

The AI in ArcaneIDE operates through a chat panel on the right side of the editor. It can answer questions, navigate your codebase, write code, run commands, and control the Unity Editor.

Three Modes

You can switch modes from the mode selector in the chat panel.

Agent Mode

The AI has full autonomy. It can:

• Read and write any file in Assets/
• Run shell commands (dotnet build, git, etc.)
• Execute Unity play/stop commands

Use Agent mode when you want the AI to actually implement something end-to-end. It will ask for confirmation on destructive actions.

Ask Mode

Read-only. The AI can explore your codebase and answer questions, but cannot modify files or run commands. Good for understanding code without risk of changes.

Plan Mode

The AI first creates a step-by-step plan, then executes each step. During the planning phase it’s read-only. Once the plan is approved, it switches to full tool access for execution.

Use Plan mode for large, multi-file changes where you want to review the approach before anything is touched.

Reasoning Levels

Inside the chat panel you can also select a reasoning level, which controls how much thinking the model does before responding:

Level	Speed	Best for
Low	Fastest	Quick questions, simple edits
Mid	Balanced	Most everyday tasks
High	Slower	Complex logic, architecture questions
Super	Slowest	Available in Plan mode only — used for the planning phase of large refactors

Higher reasoning levels use more tokens but produce more accurate, well-considered responses.

Unity Context

The AI automatically has access to:

• Recent Unity console output — errors, warnings, and logs from the last session
• Project overview — script count, scene list, asset statistics
• Unity API reference — embedded documentation for common Unity classes

This context is injected automatically — you don’t need to paste it in manually.