Netlify Agent Runners now have a mode selector. Pick Ask and the agent reads, investigates, and answers questions about your project. Build is still the default and works exactly as before.

Ask mode is strictly read-only. The agent can’t edit files, run commands, deploy, or change settings. With no build or Deploy Preview, Ask runs are often faster and use fewer credits.

It answers with real context: your repository, your project context, and your project’s Netlify Database. Your data is often the fastest way to answer a question about your app, and Ask mode can query it with no risk of a write.

A few prompts to steal:

“How many users are in the database?”
“Walk me through how authentication is implemented in this project. Which files handle it, and where is the token stored?”
“Our Largest Contentful Paint is bad on mobile. Read the code and tell me what’s most likely responsible.”
“Plan out how we can migrate to the latest version of Astro.”

Because it’s a mode on the same run, you can switch to Build the moment an answer turns into a task — same run, same context, no re-explaining.

Ask mode is available on all agents, Claude Code, Google Gemini, and OpenAI Codex, in Agent Runners today. See the docs on Ask and Build modes.