Agents
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Palette Desktop is agent-agnostic. Pick your agent per chat, and switch whenever you like. Your context lives in the folder, not the agent, so switching costs you nothing.
The five agents
- Palette, Palette's own agent. It comes with Palette, so there is no separate account or sign-in, and it is the default agent, so you have one ready in your first chat. You pick a model and where it runs: Palette Cloud, on-device, or your own server.
- Claude Code, Anthropic's Claude Code. It supports plan mode and is the only agent with slash commands.
- Codex, OpenAI's Codex.
- Gemini CLI, Google's Gemini.
- Mistral Vibe, Mistral's agent.
Inside one session you can run different agents in different chats at the same time, on the same folder.
Choosing how models are powered
How the model behind an agent is paid for and authenticated depends on the agent. There are three ways:
- Your subscription. Sign in with your existing plan. Claude Code (Claude Pro or Claude Code) and Codex (your ChatGPT/Codex plan) work this way.
- Your API key. Bring an API key instead of a subscription. Supported for Claude, Codex, Gemini (Gemini uses an API key, not a Google sign-in), and Mistral.
- Palette-provided. The Palette agent can run on:
- Palette Cloud, models Palette provides, ready immediately with no setup or key. Usage is metered.
- On-device, a local model that runs on your machine. Free, private, and works offline. Download one from a built-in catalog.
- Self-hosted, point Palette at your own model endpoint (for example LM Studio or Ollama).
Which models each agent offers:
| Agent | Models |
|---|---|
| Palette | Any model, run on Palette Cloud (DeepSeek today), on-device (an open model like Qwen), or self-hosted |
| Claude Code | Opus, Sonnet, Haiku, Fable |
| Codex | Your plan's available models |
| Gemini CLI | Auto, Gemini Pro, Gemini Flash |
| Mistral Vibe | Mistral Medium, Devstral |
How agents learn about your workspace
Instruction-file behavior depends on the agent:
- Claude Code reads
CLAUDE.md. - Codex reads
AGENTS.md. - Automatic loading of
AGENTS.mdis not currently guaranteed for Gemini, Mistral, or the Palette agent. Mention the relevant file in your prompt when those agents need it.
If you turn on the starting guide when creating a folder, Palette writes an initial CLAUDE.md. Create AGENTS.md separately if you use Codex, and keep shared instructions aligned. See Working with CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md for the full pattern.
Plan mode is available with Claude Code and the Palette agent. Slash commands remain specific to Claude Code.
Bring your own, or use Palette's
You are never locked to one vendor. Run the agent and model you want, on your own subscription, your own key, or Palette's own models. When a new agent shows up that your team wants to try, it slots in next to the others.
Detection and install
Palette detects the agents on your machine and installs one for you in one click from Settings if you don't have it yet. The Palette agent is built in, so there is no separate agent to install. No terminal required.
Next
- Chats, how you pick an agent per chat.
- Sessions, what the agent does and what you approve.
- Quick Start, install and run your first session.