WEBVTT

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Now,
I briefly mentioned it before already.

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When starting a new chat session,
we can also choose background or

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cloud agents,
and we cannot just choose it here.

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We can also choose it in some other
places.

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For example,
we could also choose from different kinds

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when starting implementation based on a
plan.

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But what are these agents about?
A background agent

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is like a regular agent here,
but as the name

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suggests, it runs in the background.

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It's therefore, meant for tasks
that don't need your

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input all the time. So,
where it's not very likely that you

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need to grant certain permissions,
for example.

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So typically, not tasks
that involve a lot of work in the

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command line or web requests,
unless you already allowed all these

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things in your workspace, of course.

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But if you then have a task
that can be done in the background without

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constant input,
you could consider using a background

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For example, here we could say,
for my CLI tool,

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-C, and then I point it at main.py,

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so just as a normal agent,
you provide a prompt, you provide your

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context. And I'll say, for my

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CLI tool, I need a proper

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documentation. Please update

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README and describe the

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tool use and all its options. So,
I want it to

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write some documentation for me.
It will simply need to edit one of

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my project files and
that won't need any special input from my

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side. So,
when you then have a background agent

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selected, by default,
at the point of time where I'm recording

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it has this work tree option enabled,
which means it will

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use the Git work tree feature to
essentially copy your project

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onto a different temporary place on your
system and

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work in it there. And then once it's done,
it will merge that work in that

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other project into your main project so
that you can continue working

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in your main project whilst this
background agent is working on the same

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project in a different place on your
machine so that you don't interfere.

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That's the idea. Now,
you can switch from work tree to work

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space if you want that,
and then it will still work in the

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work in the same project you're in,
and then, of course,

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also start editing those files. So,
that's why work tree is the default and

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typically the better option for these
background agents.

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So, if I now hit enter,
it will go ahead and it will

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start this in the background,
and we can leave this here and keep it

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working. We can always go back to it here.

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And it will do that in its own work tree,
in its

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own folder,
and we can keep on working on our code

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agents. Now, it is worth noting that
if I start a new session here

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and I say something like, explain

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main in the ask agent mode and

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submit this,
I can also leave this session

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So, that's not the main difference.

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This also runs in the background,
so to say, but the

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difference is that this background agent
is meant for tasks that

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are optimized for running in the
background and that it can

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utilize this work tree feature. Now,
as you see here, it actually

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does need my permission for something
and I will grant it.

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So, you can still grant permissions, but,
of course, you should try

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to let it work on tasks
that don't need your input necessarily.

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Whenever such a background agent is done,
you can take a

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look at its result and, as always,
explore that

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code it wrote. So, in this case,
this README.md

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file, and if you then click apply here,
it will

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apply this and merge the work from
that work

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tree,
so from that other project into your main

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here. And normally,
the apply button should then also

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For me, for some reason,
it's still showing up,

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changes here.
Another type of agent you can use with

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GitHub Copilot is the cloud agent,
and the idea behind the cloud

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agent, as the name suggests, is
that it will not work

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here,
neither in your project nor in some work

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instead in the cloud on GitHub,
and it will create a pull request once

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it's done. Therefore,
in order to use this cloud agent,

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to submit your work... Therefore,
in order to use this cloud agent, you'll

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have to link this Git repository to a
GitHub repository and

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then with your GitHub Copilot
subscription,

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cloud instead of on your machine.