Which agents can I use?
Five: Palette’s own agent, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Mistral Vibe. You pick one per chat and can switch whenever you like, because your context lives in the folder, not the agent. See Agents.Do I need a subscription to a model?
Not necessarily. You have three options. Bring your own subscription (Claude Pro or Max, ChatGPT or Codex plan). Bring your own API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or Mistral). Or use Palette’s own agent, which needs no third-party subscription and can even run a model on your machine for free. See Agents.Do I need to know how to code, or use the terminal?
No. Palette Desktop is built for people who work in folders, not repos. There is no terminal and no code. You work with your agent in chats, and review changes before they save.What file types can it work with?
Any files in your folder. It works best with text-based files like markdown and plain text, because your agent reads and edits those directly. It can also open and reference other files as context, and preview PDFs, images, and code in the viewer.Can I point it at a code repository?
Yes, it works on any folder, including one that is version-controlled. That said, Palette Desktop is built for non-engineering work in folders, not for writing code. If writing code is the goal, an engineering tool like Cursor or Claude Code in the terminal is a better fit.What if the agent I want isn’t installed yet?
Palette installs it for you in one click from Settings. Palette’s own agent is built in, so it needs nothing at all.Where does my data live, and is it private?
On your machine. Palette Desktop is a local app, so your files stay with you (and in your Google Drive or Dropbox if your folder is synced there). Palette does not train on your data. When an agent runs, the calls go to whichever model provider you chose, under that provider’s terms. If you want everything to stay local, run Palette’s own agent with an on-device model.What happens to my files when the agent makes changes? Can I undo?
Changes inside the main workspace are staged for review before they save back, and you can restore an earlier checkpoint. A reference marked editable sits outside that workspace boundary, so changes to it are written directly and are not included in the session save-back review.Can I use my own API key instead of a subscription?
Yes. For Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI, you can bring an API key instead of signing in. Palette stores those keys in your operating system’s keychain and passes them to the agent. Mistral Vibe uses Mistral’s browser sign-in, which provisions a La Plateforme API key and stores it locally in~/.vibe/.env; Palette does not copy that key into its keychain.