Start a ticket

This page shows you how to hand a ticket to By Dawn’s agent. By the end you’ll know which of the three ways to start fits the work, how to choose the steps the agent is held to, and what happens on the ticket once it’s running.

By Dawn’s agent is called the worker in the app. You start it from the ticket itself. Open the ticket and the right side, where the worker’s session will run, shows the Mission picker first, so you choose how the work is checked before any of it begins.

Plan, build, or plan + build

The picker opens with three choices. Each says in a line what it does, and hovering it says more:

Choice	Reads	What the agent does
Plan first	writes a plan, then asks	Writes a plan and asks you to agree it. No code changes until you do.
Build now	runs the whole thing	Builds in one go, stopping at each step that asks you.
Plan + build	plans, asks, then builds	Plans, waits for your approval, then builds.

Plan first suits work you want to shape before anyone writes code, or a ticket you’ll hand to someone else to build. The agent works read-only: it researches, writes the plan on the ticket and asks you to approve it, and it can’t push code. Approving ends that run, and you start the build yourself when you’re ready (see After a plan is approved).

Build now suits a small or well-understood ticket. The agent starts building at once. It still stops at every step that waits for you, so if the mission includes Approve the plan, it writes a plan and waits for your answer before it carries on.

Plan + build is the middle path, and the one a new picker starts on. The agent plans, waits for you to approve the plan, and then builds to it in the same run, so you don’t have to come back and start the build yourself.

After your first start, the picker opens on whichever choice you used last.

Note

Your project access decides which choices you can make. A member with Plan only access sees “Your project access allows planning runs only.”, and only Plan first is open to them. A project admin sets this for each member in Settings›, then This project›, then Members & access.

Choose the steps

Under the three choices, the picker lists the mission’s steps, grouped by phase: Plan, Design, Build, Verify and Ship, unless your organization has renamed them. The heading says the rule: “Locked steps always run — tick anything else you want.” A row marked always runs is one your organization made required, and you can’t untick it. Every other row is yours to tick or untick.

Above the steps is a row of chips that tick the list for you. Your organization’s or project’s default mission template comes first, under its own name, then any other templates, then four presets:

• Auto: By Dawn picks per ticket, from its labels, its repos and the size of the work.
• Quick: required steps only.
• Standard: required plus the steps most work needs.
• Thorough: everything that applies.

A chip only ticks rows: you can still untick anything that isn’t locked. Steps that pause for you are listed under a “these pause for you” divider, so you can see before you start where the agent will stop and wait. Some steps have a setting of their own beside them, such as how many mockups to draw or Who approves a step: A person, SAW reviews, then a person, or SAW reviews and approves.

Your organization or project can fix a setting as part of the mission. A fixed setting shows its value with a lock and the line “Set by your organization as part of the mission.” (or “Set by this project…”), and you can’t change it here or from a template.

Missions and templates explains where the steps and templates come from, and how a team changes them.

Start it

1. Open the ticket and choose Plan first, Build now or Plan + build.

2. Pick a template or preset chip, then tick or untick the steps you want. The line under the button counts what you’ve chosen, for example “3 always run · 5 ticked · 2 pause for you”.

3. Optionally, type a first instruction in Add a steer for the worker… at the bottom. It goes to the agent with the start, so you can say “keep the existing IDs stable” before it begins.

4. Choose the button, which names what you’re starting: Start planning, Start building or Start plan + build.

What you confirm is frozen onto the ticket as its mission. Changing the step library or a template later never changes a mission that has already started.

Starting without the picker

Some tickets have no picker. If your organization or project has missions turned off, the ticket offers Start worker instead, and the agent works without any steps to pass. After a run has ended, the same button reads Start a new run.

A ticket that’s blocked by another open ticket can’t start until that one is done. Its header shows Blocked by and the ticket it’s waiting on.

Skipping the mission

When you’re allowed to, a Skip button sits above the choices. It starts the build with only the always-run steps. By Dawn asks “Skip the mission?”, tells you that always-run steps, required questions and the finish gate still apply, and asks “Why skip it? (one line)”. Choose Skip & start. Your name and reason are recorded on the ticket.

Who may skip is set in Settings›, then Organization›, then Missions under Who may skip a mission: Anyone who can start a build, Admins only or Nobody. A project can make it stricter for itself, never looser.

While it runs

Once the agent starts, the picker gives way to the agent’s session, with a thin mission strip above it showing the current phase. The full list of steps, with what each has passed, moves to the Mission section on the left of the ticket, which counts them as “N of M passed”.

When a step needs you, the strip shows Needs you and a card opens above the message box, so you can answer without leaving the ticket. The same request shows in your inbox under Needs you. Checkpoints and debriefs covers each kind of card and what your answer does.

Everything you type into the message box while the agent runs reaches it as a steer.

After a plan is approved

When you approve a plan on a Plan first ticket, the planning run ends. The ticket shows what the run did, asks Is this ticket done?, and has Needs more work already chosen, with a build mission drafted underneath and tagged “drafted from the plan”. Check the steps and choose Start building, and the agent builds to the plan you approved.

On a Plan + build ticket there’s nothing to start: approving the plan starts the build to it straight away.

FAQ

Can I change my mind after I start?

You can’t change the mode of a mission that has started, but you can steer the agent at any time from the message box. Until the build starts, you can also choose Reopen plan approval in the ticket’s Mission section to be asked about the plan again. If you stop the agent partway, the ticket offers Continue mission 1 (or whichever number it’s on) and Abandon mission 1. Abandoning lets you start the next mission from a fresh picker.

Why is Start greyed out?

Usually because your project access doesn’t cover that choice (“Your project access doesn’t allow starting runs.”), or because the ticket is blocked by another one. A project admin can change your access in Settings›, then This project›, then Members & access.

Can I start several tickets at once?

Yes, from an epic: Launch epic starts its tickets in order. It offers Build now and Plan + build but not Plan first, because a ticket that only plans stops in Review and the tickets after it would never start.

What if the picker says it couldn't load the ticket's checks?

By Dawn shows “Couldn’t load this ticket’s checks” with Retry. If you may build, it also offers Build without gates, which starts the agent with no mission pinned. Nothing is checked for that run, so use it only when you can’t wait.

Where to go next

• Missions and templates: what a mission is and how a team sets its steps and defaults.
• Checkpoints and debriefs: answering the agent when it stops for you.