Start here: what Pinchy is for and what to ask him

Pinchy is a little lobster on your desktop who gets real things done with Claude: he answers, but he also opens files, edits them, runs commands, uses websites and apps, and remembers what you tell him. There are five ways to work with him, from a quick question to a whole crew on a big job. This page says what each one is for and what to ask.

What to ask for

• “Rename the photos in ~/Pictures/trip by date.” A quick job in the chat: he does it and shows what he changed, and you can undo it.
• “Every weekday at 8, give me five lines: my calendar, the mail that needs me, and news about AI tools.” An agent: a Pinchy with one job who works on his own and writes when it is done.
• “Use a swarm to build a small sign-up page in ~/code/site, with tests.” A swarm: several Pinchys plan the job, split it and check each other’s parts.
• “Turn ~/Documents/notes.md into a report with charts.” Work mode: you get the finished file, attached in the chat.
• “Add CSV export to this project, on a branch, with tests.” Code mode: he works in your repository, runs your checks and hands over a branch.
• “What are you working on right now?” He tells you what is running: jobs, agents and swarms.
• “Which one should I use for this, an agent or a swarm?” He answers from this page: an agent for something that repeats or keeps going, a swarm for one big job with parts.

Which one for what

• The chat: one thing, now. A question, a file, a small change, something on a website. Click him, or use your shortcut, and say it in your own words.
• Work and Code: one real job from start to finish, with a plan, checks and a hand-over, while the chat stays free. Work makes documents, tables, slides and tidy folders; Code changes a project.
• An agent: a job that repeats or keeps going for days. He runs at set times or when something happens, checks his own result, and reaches you by notification, phone or Telegram. He asks only when a decision is yours.
• A swarm: one job too big for one Pinchy. A crew plans it together, works on the parts at the same time, improves and checks each other’s parts, and gives you one result. You approve the plan and set a cost cap first.
• Away from the computer: the phone app and Telegram show what he is doing and let you answer his questions. With an away server he keeps going while this computer is off.

How to start

• Just ask. You do not have to pick a mode: for a real job he suggests Work, Code, an agent or a swarm himself and says why.
• The start pages show examples as cards: what you get, how he works on it, and the few things he needs from you. Open the Agents window for agents, or the Workspace window and pick Code, Work or Swarm. A card fills in the form; nothing starts until you press Start.
• A big job says what it will cost before it runs. Swarms and agents have limits you set: a cost cap, a time limit, how often an agent may wake up.
• Not sure what he did? Every change is kept, and Undo puts it back.

Good first requests

• Something of yours and small: “Tidy my Downloads folder. Show me the plan first.”
• Something that repeats: “Watch this page and tell me when the price changes: https://…”
• Something you have been putting off: “Read ~/Documents/contract.pdf and tell me the five things I should know before I sign.”

Settings

You do not have to open Settings for most things: tell Pinchy. “Turn the claw sounds off”, “go dark”, “enable the Night Skin extension”, “switch the GitHub connector off”, “install this skill: (a GitHub link)”. He does it and says in one sentence what he changed and what it was before. “What did you change?” lists it, “undo that” puts it back.

• When your message names the thing, that is your yes and he does not ask again. When the idea came from somewhere else (a web page, a file, another agent), he asks you first, and an extension from outside Pinchy’s library that runs its own code always shows you what it may do before it goes on.
• A few switches are yours alone: pausing and resuming, the Experimental page, updates and the wallet. The settings that decide whether he asks you (permission modes, approvals, spending limits) change only when you name them yourself, or in Settings.
• Settings → Home → Home: the quick links, including running the welcome again.
• Settings → Agents & automation → Agents: how agents run, here and on your away server.
• Settings → Work & Code → Swarms: crew size, the plan review, cost and time limits.
• Settings → Work & Code → Work mode and Settings → Work & Code → Code mode: how runs plan, check and hand over.
• Settings → Brain → Claude: which model he thinks with and how much of your plan he uses.

Limits

• He works with your Claude plan: big jobs use more of it, and when the plan is used up he pauses and says when it resets.
• He only does what his permissions allow. Risky steps (deleting, paying, installing, sudo) ask you first unless you changed that.
• A swarm or an agent is not faster for a small job. For one quick thing, the chat is the right tool.

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