Agents

CDE and ORGN Studio use the word "agent" in several places. This page separates them so you know which surface to open for which job.

Three surfaces at a glance

Origin Agent in CDE

Origin Agent is the in-IDE assistant — it answers questions, edits files, and runs terminal commands when the task requires it. There is no separate mode to switch into; the agent is multifaceted on demand.

Typical workflow

1. Open a cloud worktree or local project
2. Open Origin Agent and describe the task — reference files with @ mentions when helpful
3. Review and approve tool calls as they execute
4. Commit or push changes from the integrated Git UI

On cloud worktrees, tool calls (file edits, terminal commands) run inside the TDX sandbox — same runtime boundary as your code. Inference still routes through ORGN Gateway; see Origin Agent for ZDR vs TEE models.

Parallel agents via worktrees

Run multiple agents concurrently by giving each one its own worktree:

• Each worktree is a separate branch in a separate sandbox (or local tree)
• Agents on different worktrees do not stomp each other
• Create worktrees from the Projects sidebar per task

Recommended pattern: one worktree, one agent focus, one branch.

Agent Sessions in CDE desktop

Agent Sessions is a VS Code feature in CDE for browsing and managing long-running agent sessions — separate from the Origin Agent chat panel.

Where to find it

• Agent Sessions Welcome — optional startup editor tab with onboarding and session cards
• Agent Sessions sidebar — viewer in the chat auxiliary bar for filtering and refreshing sessions

Session providers

CDE labels sessions by where they run:

Open the welcome page from the command palette: Open Agent Sessions Welcome.

Agent Session Projection

When viewing a session in projection mode, CDE focuses the workbench on a single session — title bar status, narrowed context, and an explicit exit path (Escape). Use this to review agent output without chat panel clutter, not to start new inference.

Agent chats in ORGN Studio

In the ORGN Studio browser app, the project sidebar shows Agent Chats when autonomous build agents are active on tasks.

This panel:

• Lists running and completed build agents per project
• Links each agent to its worktrees and browser Code Mode sessions
• Polls for status while agents are active

Studio agent chats are tied to the task board — they are not the same as Origin Agent in CDE or CDE's Agent Sessions window. Launching the desktop app from a Studio task is marked Soon; today, download CDE and sign in with the same id-orgn session.

Skills

Repositories can extend agent behavior with skills — instruction files that attach to agent requests when declared in agent frontmatter.

Skills live in .agents/skills/ in your repo. Each skill is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: launch
description: "Launch and automate VS Code using agent-browser via Chrome DevTools Protocol."
---

When an agent declares a skill in its header, CDE attaches the skill instructions to requests for that agent. See the VS Code agents documentation for the full skills model.

Project-level model and sandbox settings are configured in ORGN Studio — CDE inherits team context through your signed-in session.

Tasks and automation

Studio tasks linked to worktrees can trigger automation when a worktree is created (runOn: worktreeCreated) — for example dependency install or environment validation before an agent starts.

Next steps

• Origin Agent — Gateway keys, models, and tool use
• Cloud worktrees — create and switch worktrees
• ORGN Studio — task board and browser Code Mode
• Gateway quickstart — TEE models and inference receipts