---
url: https://bishop.agentdeployment.co/interfaces/commands.md
description: >-
  Messages to Bishop itself in Slack or Teams, like changing verbosity or the
  model, or stopping a turn.
---

# Commands

A command is a message to Bishop rather than to the agent, sent in a Slack or Teams conversation. Bishop runs it and answers in the thread, and the agent is never told about either. Email has no commands.

A message is a command when the whole message is inline code opening with `! `, like `` `! verbosity low` ``. What follows the `!` has to look like a command name, so code and pasted output reach the agent as they always did. A command inside a sentence goes to the agent.

`` `! help` `` lists the commands, and any of them takes `--help`.

## verbosity

How much of a running turn the conversation shows.

| Level | Shows |
|---|---|
| `high` | The agent's commentary, a card for each run of tool calls, and a closing line. The default. |
| `medium` | The same without the tool calls. |
| `low` | The answer alone. In Teams, also without the closing line saying what a turn cost. |

`` `! verbosity` `` shows where the conversation stands, and `` `! verbosity default` `` follows the configured level again. It applies to the turn that's running, so you can quiet one mid-flight. `slack.verbosity` and `teams.verbosity` in the [configuration](/reference/config) set where every conversation starts. Slack always marks a thread as working, whatever the level.

## model

Which model this conversation runs, and how hard it thinks.

```
! model opus              the model
! model terra high        the model and the effort
! model --effort high     the effort, leaving the model alone
! model                   where the conversation stands
! model default default   follow the configured model and effort again
```

Names go to the harness as you type them, in its own naming, so `opus` or `gpt-5.1-codex-max` means whatever it means there. Bishop only checks that it looks like a model name. A name the harness doesn't know does what a bad `agent.model` does: Codex fails the turn, and Claude says so in prose about a model and silently ignores an effort it doesn't recognize. `` `! model` `` is how you see what a conversation runs with, which is the only sign of a typo in the silent case.

It takes effect on the next turn, not the one running, and lasts for the life of the conversation.

## stop

Stops the turn running in this conversation. The turn closes with a line saying how long it ran, and anything sent while it was running is answered next.