Coxswain

Coxswain is a chat with Claude about your project's Up Next. Ask it to find duplicates, tighten a card, or say what to work on next. Coxswain can read, rewrite, create, link and delete cards. Every change it makes shows in the card's History as Claude's, and ⌘Z undoes its edits.

Coxswain can also read your project's files to check a card against the code. It can't edit files or run commands.

Open a Coxswain chat

Use any of these:

• Choose Window ▸ Coxswain ▸ Chat, or press ⇧⌘B.
• Click the sparkles button in the project strip.
• In Up Next's header, click the Coxswain menu and choose Chat.
• Right-click a card and choose Manage This Ticket….

A chat starts a Claude conversation, which uses tokens. So before it starts, Mooring asks Open Coxswain? and shows which cards the chat will cover. Click Open to start. Select Don't ask again to skip the question next time. To bring it back, turn on Ask before opening Coxswain in Settings ▸ Coxswain.

Run a saved job

The Coxswain menu in Up Next's header lists Chat and your saved jobs. Mooring ships four: Find duplicates, Refine requirements, Split large cards and Re-prioritise.

1. Filter Up Next to the cards you want, for example Ready.
2. Click the Coxswain menu and choose a job.

The job opens in its own window and works on the cards Up Next was showing. Choose the same job again to return to that window.

Coxswain on a card

Each card's window has a Coxswain section. Type a question about the card, or click a suggestion that fits it, such as Help refine this card or Check if a duplicate. Nothing runs until you ask.

Help refine this card reads the card's title, description, acceptance criteria and recent comments. It asks up to three short questions if something important is unclear. Then it proposes a better title, description and acceptance criteria, one at a time.

When Coxswain proposes a change, you see the old text beside the new:

• Apply makes the change. It shows in the card's History, and ⌘Z undoes it.
• Edit opens the new text in the card's editor, so you can change it first.
• Discard throws the proposal away.

If you have an unsaved edit in that field, Coxswain leaves it alone and says why.

Choose the model and effort

The control beside Send changes the model and effort for the current conversation. For new conversations, open Settings ▸ Coxswain:

• Model applies to every Coxswain conversation.
• Effort applies to chats and to the Coxswain section on a card. Each saved job sets its own effort.
• Personality sets how Coxswain talks. It answers in plain language at first. Reply ipl to ask it to say its last answer more plainly.
• Suggestions lists the saved jobs. Add, edit, turn off or reset any job.

What Coxswain costs shows as its own line in the Claude Usage window. See Claude usage and plan limits.