Steer and queue

You do not have to wait for Perch to finish before you say something. While a task runs in the Perch desktop app, the message box stays open, and what you type can either join the task or wait its turn.

Steer: add to the running task

Type a message and press Enter. It joins the task Perch is already doing, and Perch reads it at its next step instead of starting over. The note under your message says when: Waiting for Perch to read this, or Reads this after npm test finishes while a command runs, then Read by Perch once it has.

Use it to change course partway: a different approach, a file to leave alone, a detail you forgot.

Queue: line up what comes next

Press Tab instead, and the message waits in a tray above the message box until the current task ends, then runs as a turn of its own. The chat list shows how many messages are waiting in each chat. A message with files attached always queues.

Stop

Press Esc to stop the running task.

On a phone, in the cloud, and in the CLI

• On a phone or tablet there is no Enter or Tab: Send adds your message to the running task, and its menu has Queue for after.
• When the task runs in the cloud or on another of your computers, a message you send waits and goes when that task finishes.
• In the CLI the keys are the same: Enter adds to the task, Tab queues it, and Esc (with nothing typed) or Ctrl-C stops.