Pick the mode before Amp's first message, keep one task per thread, and put conventions in AGENTS.md. Ask the Oracle to review plans and code, and require proof from the orb before anything ships. Each step comes from Amp's documentation and from engineers' public accounts.
When you need this
- Long threads drift from the task and cost more than expected.
- Engineers get different results from the same request because the agent does not read shared conventions.
- Agent changes land on the main branch before anyone has looked at them.
- Simple edits run on the most expensive mode while hard ones run on the cheapest.
Evaluation criteria
Choose the mode first
Is the mode matched to the task before the thread starts?
Look forPick the mode before the first message because a thread keeps its starting mode. Low fits small, well-defined fixes, and medium is the default. Choose high when a subtle miss is expensive, or ultra for migrations and changes across many systems. Amp warns that starting too low costs retries, while starting too high wastes credits on simple work.
One task per thread
Does each thread have one goal a reviewer can check?
Look forAmp treats a thread as the unit of work and recommends one thread per task. It compacts a thread at 90% of its context window. Engineers who report steady results keep threads short. One co-founder tells staff to aim for 4 to 10 messages and refer to earlier threads for context.
Starter AGENTS.md
Does the agent read your conventions before every task?
Look forAmp reads AGENTS.md in the working directory and its parents, and subtree files when it opens files there. It also reads personal files under the user config directory and a workspace-wide file set by admins. If a directory has no AGENTS.md, Amp reads CLAUDE.md instead, so one file can serve Amp and Claude Code. Glob front matter scopes instructions to file types.
Use the Oracle deliberately
Who checks the plan and the diff before the main agent commits to them?
Look forAsk Amp to consult the Oracle explicitly, as its documentation recommends. Every mode has this second frontier model. Mitchell Hashimoto consults it for all planning and ends sessions with cleanup. Other engineers ask it to review the last commit before merge.
Ask for proof before merge
What evidence does the agent show before its change ships?
Look forIn an orb, the agent can run the full test suite and open the app in a portal. Ask for screenshots, review the Changes pane, and then ship. The default Ship button commits and pushes to the base branch. Set Ship Behavior to Push to Branch when your team merges through pull requests.
Questions to ask vendors
- Which modes may engineers start threads in, and who reviews that guidance as Amp changes the models behind them?
- Which AGENTS.md is the source of truth when engineers also use Claude Code or Cursor?
- Does every project's Ship Behavior match how we merge, or does it still push to main?
- How do reviewers reach the thread behind a change, for example through a thread link in the pull request?
Red flags
- Every thread started in ultra mode by default.
- One long thread per engineer per day, when each task should get its own thread.
- No AGENTS.md, so each engineer repeats conventions in prompts.
- Projects left on the default Ship behavior in a repository that requires pull request review.
Products in this piece
Sources
- Official documentation
- 9
- Public source
- 4
- Amp docs: The Dial
- Amp: Modes & models
- Amp docs: Threads
- Amp news: Amp, Rebuilt (May 6, 2026)
- Amp docs: AGENTS.md
- Amp docs: Tools
- Amp docs: Orbs
- Amp docs: Shipping changes
- Amp docs: GitHub & Git
- Mitchell Hashimoto: Vibing a Non-Trivial Ghostty Feature (Oct 11, 2025)
- G-J van Rooyen: Getting Started with Amp, written for Octoco's senior staff (Oct 28, 2025)
- Hamel Husain: Amp, notes from reading the Amp manual (Nov 2, 2025)
- Bojan Tomic: Should You Use Ampcode for Production Code? One Month In (Feb 7, 2026)