Modes & Settings - Stardeck Documentation

When you chat with Starcat, you pick a mode and an agent tier from the selector in the chat input. The mode decides how much Starcat is allowed to do; the tier decides how much reasoning power it brings.

Modes

Starcat runs in one of four modes. Agent mode is the default.

Mode	What it does	Reach for it when
Agent	Takes action: runs tools, writes data, and dispatches projects.	You want Starcat to make the change, not just talk about it.
Plan	Read-only. Researches and drafts a plan for your approval before anything changes.	The task is non-trivial and you want to review the approach first.
Design	Iterates on visual designs and HTML preview mockups, without touching your data.	You’re mocking up a layout or exploring a look before building.
Chat	Answers questions without making any changes.	You just want to ask about your business, knowledge store, or apps.

In Agent mode you can also turn on developer agents so Starcat can create apps and dispatch work to projects. See Allowing developer agents below. When Starcat Developer is building across your apps in a workspace session, you’ll also see Ultra at the top of the mode list — a max-power version of Agent mode. It doesn’t appear in a normal Starcat chat. See Starcat Developer Ultra.

Agent Tiers

Next to the mode, you choose an agent tier. Starcat uses the same four tiers as Starcat Developer: Lite, Core, Plus, and Pro. They trade speed and cost against reasoning depth. Starcat defaults to Plus.

Lite or Core for quick questions, knowledge-store lookups, and light edits.
Plus (the default) for most day-to-day work, including operating your apps and planning changes.
Pro for complex orchestration across several projects, or anything that needs the deepest reasoning.

See Agent Tiers on the Starcat Developer page for the full breakdown of each tier. Instead of fixing a tier, you can switch on Auto and let Starcat pick the right one for each message. When you’re working in another language, the Multi-lingual option (shown with Core selected) uses a model that’s stronger at non-English writing and visual input. See Auto mode for both.

Ultra

Ultra is a max-power version of Agent mode that runs Starcat Developer with parallel write agents and end-to-end self-validation. On the organization side it appears in workspace sessions, where it also adds a per-run credit budget. It’s the setting to reach for on a substantial change you want built, verified, and handed off in one go. Ultra is in alpha and rolls out gradually. For the full breakdown — including how to prompt it — see Starcat Developer Ultra.

Conversation Settings

Chat visibility

Every conversation has a visibility you set from the chat’s settings:

Personal — only you can see the chat. This is the default.
Shared with org — anyone in your organization can see it.

Visibility is per-chat, and you can change it at any time. The toggle works the same whether you’re in the standalone dashboard or the Starcat sidebar next to an app you’ve opened. Use Shared with org for work your team should be able to follow or pick up.

Allowing developer agents

By default Starcat answers questions and operates your existing apps. Building new apps and dispatching work to each project’s Starcat Developer is gated behind a per-conversation toggle. Turn on developer agents for a chat when you want Starcat to coordinate changes across your projects. Operating your apps’ APIs doesn’t require this toggle; it’s controlled separately by each app’s Allow agent access setting.

Starcat Developer Ultra

The max-power agent mode: parallel writers, self-validation, and a spend budget

Starcat Overview

What Starcat is and everything it can do

Auto Mode

Let Starcat pick the right tier for each message automatically

Best Practices

Tips for getting the most out of Starcat

​Modes

​Agent Tiers

​Ultra

​Conversation Settings

​Chat visibility

​Allowing developer agents

​Related