Library mode

Checked 2026-10-13. Applies to Beav desktop 2.9.0. Source behavior has been reviewed; animation and connection status on native desktop clients still need acceptance testing.

Beav has two modes. The mode applies to the whole app, not to a single space.

• Agent mode is the full Beav: new chat, home, AI creation, and tools & skills.
• Library mode keeps only the library, hotspots and the calendar. It hides chat and AI creation and uses a Finder-like grey and white look. AI processing of saved assets keeps running, including breakdown, transcription and visual indexing, and it still uses points. Scheduled tasks also keep running.

Library mode suits you if you mostly work in an Agent such as Claude Code or Codex and want Beav to manage your assets.

Switch modes

1. Click your avatar at the bottom left to open the account menu.
2. Under Appearance, choose Agent or Library in Mode.

You can also press ⌘⇧M (Ctrl+Shift+M on Windows and Linux). When the video editor timeline has focus, this shortcut still jumps to the previous marker.

When you switch to library mode, the main sidebar slides away and Hotspots, Schedule and your avatar move into the library sidebar. Switching to library mode opens the library. Switching back to Agent mode returns to the page you were on before. If your system has Reduce motion turned on, Beav switches without the animation.

What library mode includes

• There is no main sidebar, only the library sidebar. Hotspots and Schedule are at the top. Below them are the library, knowledge, subscriptions, account profiles, drafts and tags. Connect an Agent and your avatar are at the bottom. Click Hotspots or Schedule to show that page on the right; click any library item in the sidebar to go back to the library.
• In hotspot lists, Discuss with AI becomes Save as topic. It saves the hotspot title and its source links as a topic.
• If a notification or link opens an Agent-mode feature such as a chat, Beav stays in library mode. A notice at the top says the feature is in Agent mode and offers Switch to Agent mode.

Connect your Agent

Click Connect an Agent at the bottom of the sidebar to open the connect dialog. The same item is also in the account menu.

1. Choose your Agent: Claude Code, Codex, WorkBuddy, Claude Desktop or Other.
2. Follow the three steps in the dialog:
   • Claude Code, Codex and WorkBuddy: copy the message and send it to the Agent. The Agent installs the Beav Creator plugin itself.
   • Claude Desktop: run one command in a terminal, then open the generated beav-creator.mcpb.
   • Other Agents, such as Cursor or Cherry Studio: add a stdio MCP server. The dialog shows the command and arguments.
3. Come back to the dialog and wait for the status on the right to show Connected.

The dialog shows Connected and the time of the last call once an Agent has called Beav since Beav started. The number next to Connect an Agent at the bottom left is how many Agents are connected.

Beav doesn't save this status. After you restart Beav, it reappears only after the Agent calls Beav again.

The dialog also shows whether the local port is running. If it isn't, click Start.

Never paste a credential file or a token into any chat. For the full install flow, see Connect Codex Desktop and WorkBuddy and Connect Claude.

Current limits

Not in this version yet:

• A right-side inspector and a bottom path bar.
• Limiting which tools external Agents can use in library mode.
• Library-mode-specific write permission settings for external Agents. Existing authorized MCP connections can still save assets according to their tool permissions.
• Colour extraction and filtering by colour.