Modes

OpenMLR uses three per-message modes. Switch modes using the selector above the input area. Code execution is available in all modes.

Plan mode

Purpose: Clarify scope before doing work.

The agent will:

• Ask structured questions using a bottom drawer UI (2-4 options + free text)
• Break tasks into a plan visible in the right panel
• Not execute code or modify files
• Suggest switching to Research or Write mode when ready

Research mode

Purpose: Find and synthesize information.

The agent will:

• Search papers via OpenAlex, ArXiv, CrossRef
• Read full paper sections from ar5iv HTML
• Crawl citation graphs and find related work
• Search GitHub for code examples
• Track all papers/resources in the right panel
• Respect the per-session search budget (default 25 API calls)

Search budget

Each session has a limited number of paper API calls to prevent endless searching. The budget is shown in the right panel. When exhausted, the agent must ask the user before continuing.

Write mode

Purpose: Draft academic content.

The agent will:

• Write paper sections using the writing tool
• Manage citations and bibliography
• Reference completion reports from the research phase
• Export to Markdown or LaTeX

Task management

The right panel shows:

• Tasks: Plan items with status (pending → in progress → completed)
• Resources: Papers, code repos, datasets, and completion reports

When a task is marked completed, a completion report is auto-generated with a summary and hints for upcoming tasks. Click report titles in the resources list to view them in a slide-out drawer.

Completion reports

Reports follow a markdown spec:

# Task Completion Report: [task title]
**Completed**: [timestamp]
## Summary
[what was accomplished]
## Next Steps
[recommendations for upcoming tasks]

The agent re-reads these reports to maintain context across compactions.

Context tracking

The right panel shows a token usage gauge. When approaching the model's context window limit, the system auto-compacts the conversation by summarizing older messages. The gauge color changes: green → yellow → red.