Guides

Send to agent

Send to agent takes the topics you have checked in the Outline and hands them, as one message, to a coding agent running on your Mac. The agent is connected over ACP, the Agent Client Protocol, and that connection is what lets SpeakWith ask the agent which folder to work in and which model to use, so you choose both from a menu instead of typing them. This page follows one job from the Outline through to the message the agent receives.

Before you start

You need one coding agent installed on this Mac, such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or Gemini. If you use a session manager that publishes its projects to SpeakWith, have it running. That is all. If the agent you want is not one SpeakWith finds on its own, see Point SpeakWith at a program of your own, near the end of this page.

The job

This morning you dictated a session about chapter 4 of a book. The manuscript lives in a folder named lighthouse-book. Two Outline rows belong in that chapter. A third row, The lamp oil, stays unchecked.

The Outline with three rows. The storm scene and Names to keep have filled circles. Names to keep says the keeper is Mara Voss. The lamp oil has an empty circle and is not sent.

Send checked topics to an agent

Destination is already set in the figure at the top of this page. On that same tab, the two topics, the instruction, and Send to agent sit together.

The Agent tab, ready to send. The status line reads Claude Code, lighthouse-book, default model. A caption says 2 topics will be sent as one prompt turn. Preview tiles show The storm scene and Names to keep. The instruction names chapters/04-the-storm.md and forbids a new character. A blue Send to agent button is under that box. Callouts name the status line, the caption, Optional instruction, and the button.

Check the topics. In the Outline, tick each topic you want the agent to see. Until at least one is checked, Send to agent stays disabled, and the Agent tab reads: Check topics in the Outline to preview what the agent will receive.
In this job
Tick The storm scene and Names to keep. Leave The lamp oil empty.
Clear every circle and Send to agent stays disabled.
Open the Agent tab. In the sidebar, choose Agent, beside Session, Feedback, and Stores. Destination is at the top of that tab. Send to agent follows it.
In this job
Open Agent, beside Session, Feedback, and Stores. The tooltip reads: Hand the selected session to an agent.
Pick an Agent. Open the Agent menu and choose who should receive the topics. The status line starts with that name, or reads not configured when nothing resolves.
In this job
Choose Claude Code. The status line on the Agent tab starts with that name, then lighthouse-book, then default model.
If nothing resolves, that same line reads not configured.
Pick a Project. Open the Project menu and choose the folder the agent should work in, from Recent, All projects, or Add folder…. The middle of the status line should name that folder.
In this job
Choose lighthouse-book from Recent. It shows 2 h ago because the manuscript was open then.
field-notes is also on the poster at the top of this page. It is research, so it is the wrong folder.
If lighthouse-book is missing, Add folder… selects it. The middle of the status line should then read lighthouse-book.
Leave Model alone, or choose one. Model stays on Agent default until the agent has reported its own list. The status line then ends in default model, so the agent picks for itself.
In this job
Leave Model on Agent default. The status line ends in default model, and Claude Code chooses.
Open the menu later only if you want a smaller model for a second pass on the same two topics.
Add an instruction, if you like. On the Agent tab, the Optional instruction box is where you say what to do with the topics. Leave it empty and only the checked topics are sent.
In this job
The box on the Agent tab names chapters/04-the-storm.md and forbids a new character. The two topics do not say either of those things.
Leave the box empty and both topics still go, with no file to create.
Press Send to agent. Nothing is handed over until this press. Read the topics caption on the Agent tab first, and treat that line as the confirmation.
In this job
The caption reads: 2 topics will be sent as one prompt turn. Press Send to agent only after you see that line. The next section is the message that press builds.

The message

With a session manager, that press builds one prompt. SpeakWith opens with a lead line, your instruction follows, then each checked topic under its own heading.

The prompt handed to Claude Code. It opens with the SpeakWith lead line, then the instruction to write chapter 4 as chapters/04-the-storm.md, then The storm scene and Names to keep. Names to keep says the keeper is Mara Voss and the supply boat is Cormorant.

The terminal

Open a session opens this window on lighthouse-book. Claude Code runs the prompt from the section above and writes chapters/04-the-storm.md in that folder.

A terminal window titled lighthouse-book, Claude Code. It is running the SpeakWith prompt, then shows Wrote chapters/04-the-storm.md. The file contains the storm scene and the keeper Mara Voss, taken from the notes.

Rows you may or may not see

Two more rows appear under Destination only when there is a choice to make.

Terminal. This row is there only when this Mac has more than one terminal app. Choose which one should open.
In this job
This job needs a window you can watch. With one terminal app installed, Destination has no Terminal row, and that app is the one that opens on lighthouse-book.
With two terminal apps installed, pick the one that should show Claude Code creating chapters/04-the-storm.md.
Runs in. You see Runs in only for SpeakWith's own bridge. Open a session watches a terminal window; Answer here puts the reply on the Agent tab.
In this job
Choose Open a session. The terminal figure is Claude Code writing the chapter in lighthouse-book.
Answer here would put the draft on the Agent tab instead. On that path SpeakWith declines a request to create chapters/04-the-storm.md.

If you press Send twice

With your session manager chosen. A second press on the same topics is held: the Agent tab says they were already sent, and Send again repeats them. The Sent ledger, lower on that tab, keeps the list.
In this job
Three minutes later the same two topics are still checked. The Agent tab reads: Already sent 3 minutes ago. Send again is what would hand chapter 4 over a second time.
The Sent ledger, lower on the Agent tab, lists that send. Before the first press it read: Nothing sent yet from this tab.
With any other agent chosen. Every press is a fresh message, with no hold. The Outline checkboxes are still what gets sent.
In this job
This job used the session manager, so the hold above applies. An agent that is not that manager does not hold.
On that other path, a second press sends The storm scene and Names to keep again. Uncheck Names to keep first if the repeat should carry only the scene.

Point SpeakWith at a program of your own

Skip this section when Claude Code is already in the Agent menu. When the agent that should write the chapter is missing from that menu, Settings, under Agent, holds the three rows for a program of your own: Agent program, Arguments, and Project folder. How such a program fills the Project menu and the Model menu is on its own page.

Read how a program fills the Project and Model lists.

What the agent can and cannot do

In this job you chose Open a session, so Claude Code runs in a terminal in lighthouse-book and writes the chapter there. Answer here is the other choice: the draft comes back onto the Agent tab, and SpeakWith declines a request, made through that connection, to change files on the Mac.