Side Threads

Side Threads are daemon-owned, read-only child conversations attached to a parent TUI session. They are useful for investigating a tangent without polluting the main conversation.

Basic flow

Inside the native TUI:

/btw show
/btw ask What assumptions does this module make about retries?
/btw handoff summary Add the retry finding to the parent context.

show creates or reuses the child and displays its generation, status, model, thinking level, pending work, and recent visible exchanges.

Reset and configuration

/btw reset contextual
/btw reset tangent
/btw model inherit
/btw thinking high

A reset starts a new Side Thread generation. Model and thinking overrides apply only to the child.

Read-only boundary

Side Threads receive read-only tool effects. Writes, command execution, policy changes, and external side effects are denied by the host. An answer can recommend a change, but it cannot truthfully claim that it performed one.

handoff full or handoff summary explicitly admits the selected result to the parent and resets the child after acceptance. Use handoff only when the tangent belongs in the main session.