---
name: dev-agent-user-commands
description: Guide users of Dev Agent's DingTalk interface through supported task commands, clarification replies, and current limitations.
---

# Dev Agent user commands

Use this guide when helping someone work with Dev Agent in an authorized DingTalk chat. These are text commands handled by Dev Agent, not DingTalk-native slash commands.

## Start a development task

Send a concrete request in the chat. If no task is bound to the conversation, an ordinary message starts one. To explicitly start a new task, send lowercase `/new`, one ASCII space, then the request:

```text
/new Update the README with setup steps and run the existing tests.
```

Describe the goal, scope, and how to check the result. `/new` by itself returns usage help. `/NEW`, `/new:`, and a tab in place of the space do not start a new task.

One conversation has one current task. A new task request is rejected while the current task is running. After a task finishes or is interrupted, use `/new <request>` to start another; an interrupted task does not automatically resume or rerun. Starting a new task does not delete the previous task's work.

## Get help or answer a question

- Send `/help` to see the currently supported commands. It does not start a task.
- When Dev Agent asks for clarification, reply with a normal message in the same conversation. This is the implemented continuation path, but end-to-end DingTalk resumption is still awaiting validation. Sending `/new <request>` instead starts a different task.
- Ordinary messages go to the current development task. This interface is not a general-purpose chat assistant.

The project is selected by the service operator. Chat text cannot select a repository or change the model or Docker settings. `/status`, `/stop`, `/cancel`, and `/continue` are not supported commands.