Operation modes

Arka supports operation modes that change routing verbosity, write permissions, and execution style. Default is agent (debug is off).

Modes

Mode	Behavior
`agent`	Default — full skill execution, clean output
`ask`	Read-only; risky actions blocked
`plan`	Structured steps printed, no execution
`debug`	Shows routing traces, LLM fallback, vLLM status
`multitask`	Background sub-agents for parallel work

arka mode debug
arka mode agent
arka mode list

Or set in ~/.config/arka/.env:

ARKA_MODE=agent

Use plan mode to sketch slide design work before exporting a deck:

arka mode plan
arka "improve pitch slide design for kubernetes networking"

Arka prints a structured plan (audit palettes, spacing, footers, metric callouts) without running compose_slides. Switch back to execute:

arka mode agent
compose_slides compose --topic "kubernetes networking" --style pitch --theme dark -f pptx

Or one-shot with the environment override:

ARKA_MODE=plan arka "compose slides about kubernetes --style pitch"

See Compose slides for style and theme options.

Only in debug mode:

Normal mode keeps output clean for non-developers.

ROUTE_MODE controls how requests are routed, not execution style:

Value	Behavior
`symbolic`	Offline rules first, LLM fallback (recommended)
`ai_only`	LLM routing first
`symbolic_only`	Never call LLM for routing

ROUTE_MODE=symbolic