Chief of Staff Overlay

The Chief of Staff Overlay is the right-side drawer you open to talk to the Chief of Staff, the single portfolio-level agent that sits above every project and routes your requests to the right Dean, building, or specialist agent.

How It Works

The Chief of Staff (CoS) is always running. You don’t need to open a project or stand in a building to reach it — instead, a pull tab labeled CoS lives on the right edge of the screen. Click the tab to slide the overlay open; click it again, or click outside the drawer, to slide it closed. The drawer occupies a fixed strip on the right side while open and never minimizes a project window underneath.

Unlike per-agent chat windows, the CoS Overlay is purpose-built for delegation. When you type a request, the CoS decides which project’s Dean to involve, which buildings to spin up work in, and what specialists to pull in. The CoS itself doesn’t run tools that touch your files — it coordinates. Specialists do the actual work and report back, and the CoS rolls their progress into a single conversational thread for you.

The CoS’s replies follow a structured format that the overlay renders as distinct regions: a short header reply at the top, a longer answer beneath, an options block of clickable chips, and (when needed) a context document that pops out into a side pane. You don’t need to learn the format — you just see the rendered result.

Components

The overlay is composed of several stacked regions, top to bottom on the left, with a side pane on the right when used:

CoS character view — a small portrait and name banner at the top so you always know who you’re talking to. The portrait pulses while the CoS is thinking and gets a glow when there’s an unread reply.
Live activity strip — a one-line status of what the CoS is currently doing across your portfolio (for example, “Dean of acme-app is reviewing a PRD”). Updates in real time.
Options panel — when a CoS reply includes suggested next steps, they render as clickable reply chips. Clicking a chip sends that exact text back to the CoS as your next message, so you don’t have to type to keep a conversation moving.
Freeform composer — a multi-line input box at the bottom where you type whatever you want. Supports @-mentions of projects, buildings, and agents to direct attention; the composer autocompletes names as you type.
Transcript — the scrollable message history between you and the CoS, with the CoS’s structured replies rendered inline.
Right pane — opens when the CoS sends a long document (markdown or HTML). The pane has Markdown and HTML tabs so you can flip between source and rendered view. The CoS also opens this pane via the same mechanism that powers the Toolbox markdown and HTML windows.
Settings dropdown — a gear menu in the overlay header for CoS-specific options: model selection, thinking mode, permission mode, and a shortcut into the CoS’s underlying agent settings.

UI Indicators

Pull tab glow — the CoS tab on the right edge brightens when the CoS has an unread reply.
Portrait pulse — the CoS character view pulses while the agent is thinking or streaming a reply.
Streaming tokens — replies stream in word by word; a small typing dot trails the cursor until the message completes.
Activity strip ticker — a single live line summarizes what the CoS is orchestrating across your projects.
Option chips — reply suggestions appear as rounded chips below the latest message; they fade in after the message completes.
Right pane tab badges — the Markdown / HTML tabs in the right pane highlight which view was active when the document was sent.
Drawer slide — opening and closing the overlay uses a window-frost transition with no scale change.

Use Cases

Kick off new work. Tell the CoS what you want done at the portfolio level (“draft a PRD for the search feature in acme-app”) and it routes the request to the right project’s Dean.
Get a status read. Ask “what’s everyone working on?” or “what’s blocking acme-app?” and the CoS rolls up the answer from every project.
Use suggested next steps. When the CoS proposes options, click a chip instead of typing — useful for picking between approaches or confirming a plan.
Read a long answer comfortably. When the CoS produces a doc, the right pane keeps the markdown rendering separate from the conversation transcript.
Switch model or thinking mode without leaving the overlay. Use the settings dropdown to swap the CoS’s underlying model for a heavier or lighter one between turns.

Limitations

The CoS does not run tools that modify your files. It coordinates other agents; if you need direct edits, send the request to the relevant building or agent.
Option chips are suggestions from the CoS, not a fixed menu. They vary turn to turn and may not appear at all on simple replies.
The right pane displays content the CoS chooses to render there; you can’t drag arbitrary files into it from the overlay.
The CoS lives in a hidden system project and isn’t visible on the World Map. It has no Building Window of its own — its settings live in the overlay’s gear menu.
Closing the drawer doesn’t pause the CoS. It continues coordinating work in the background, and the pull tab glows when there’s something new for you.

Notes

The CoS is distinct from the Agent Chat window. Per-agent chat is a focused conversation with one specialist (a Planner, Developer, Librarian, etc.) inside one building. The CoS Overlay is your portfolio-wide command surface; use it when you don’t yet know which agent should handle a request.

For the delegation model behind this overlay — how the CoS, Deans, and building agents fit together — see Chief of Staff & Deans.