Switch Modes
switch_modesRead-only
Activate specific operational modes such as editing, interactive, planning, or one-shot to adapt the coding agent's behavior for different tasks.
Instructions
Activates the desired modes, like ["editing", "interactive"] or ["planning", "one-shot"].
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| modes | Yes | The names of the modes to activate. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| result | Yes |
Implementation Reference
- src/serena/tools/config_tools.py:37-55 (handler)The SwitchModesTool class implements the execution logic (handler) for the 'switch_modes' tool. It accepts a list of mode names, loads the corresponding SerenaAgentMode instances, sets them on the agent, and returns a detailed confirmation including prompts and active tools.
class SwitchModesTool(Tool, ToolMarkerOptional): """ Activates modes by providing a list of their names """ def apply(self, modes: list[str]) -> str: """ Activates the desired modes, like ["editing", "interactive"] or ["planning", "one-shot"] :param modes: the names of the modes to activate """ mode_instances = [SerenaAgentMode.load(mode) for mode in modes] self.agent.set_modes(mode_instances) # Inform the Agent about the activated modes and the currently active tools result_str = f"Successfully activated modes: {', '.join([mode.name for mode in mode_instances])}" + "\n" result_str += "\n".join([mode_instance.prompt for mode_instance in mode_instances]) + "\n" result_str += f"Currently active tools: {', '.join(self.agent.get_active_tool_names())}" return result_str - src/serena/tools/tools_base.py:357-367 (registration)The ToolRegistry singleton automatically discovers and registers all subclasses of Tool in the 'serena.tools' package, including SwitchModesTool, deriving its name 'switch_modes' and marking it as optional.
def __init__(self) -> None: self._tool_dict: dict[str, RegisteredTool] = {} for cls in iter_subclasses(Tool): if not any(cls.__module__.startswith(pkg) for pkg in tool_packages): continue is_optional = issubclass(cls, ToolMarkerOptional) name = cls.get_name_from_cls() if name in self._tool_dict: raise ValueError(f"Duplicate tool name found: {name}. Tool classes must have unique names.") self._tool_dict[name] = RegisteredTool(tool_class=cls, is_optional=is_optional, tool_name=name) - The get_name_from_cls class method in the base Tool class converts 'SwitchModesTool' to the tool name 'switch_modes' used for registration and MCP exposure.
def get_name_from_cls(cls) -> str: name = cls.__name__ if name.endswith("Tool"): name = name[:-4] # convert to snake_case name = "".join(["_" + c.lower() if c.isupper() else c for c in name]).lstrip("_") return name def get_name(self) -> str: return self.get_name_from_cls() - src/serena/agent.py:226-227 (registration)In SerenaAgent.__init__, all registered tools including SwitchModesTool are instantiated from the ToolRegistry and stored in self._all_tools for later exposure.
# instantiate all tool classes self._all_tools: dict[type[Tool], Tool] = {tool_class: tool_class(self) for tool_class in ToolRegistry().get_all_tool_classes()}