A scratchpad for your
AI agent prompts
Stop drafting prompts directly in the terminal, or in a separate Notes or Obsidian window. AgentsRoom Scratchpad is a proper text editor anchored at the bottom of the app. Write, reread, revise, polish long and structured prompts for your AI agents, then send the whole thing to the focused terminal in a single click.
Your draft is always there when you come back, even after you quit the app or restart your Mac. Press Cmd+Enter to send. Save a good draft as a reusable prompt in one click. A real prompt editor, built into the app.
AgentsRoom Scratchpad : a prompt editor pinned to the footer, with a compact and a large mode, and one-click send to the focused agent.
The Scratchpad is a small text editor built into AgentsRoom and anchored at the bottom of the app. It opens with a click from the status bar. A compact mode docked bottom-right for a quick paragraph, a large mode close to fullscreen for longer prompts you restructure four or five times before sending. A subtle accent dot on the button tells you a draft is in progress, so you never forget there is work waiting for you.
It was designed for one simple problem : writing a good, structured, multi-paragraph prompt for your AI coding agent without typing it straight into the terminal, where every return key can fire the prompt too early, where going back to fix a line is painful, and where your text disappears the moment the window closes. And without opening Notes, Obsidian or VS Code on the side just to copy-paste into the shell.
Instead, the Scratchpad gives you a proper writing space, inside the app, right next to your agent. What you type stays safe, and one click sends the whole prompt to the agent you are focused on. No more half-executed prompts, no more broken pastes, no more lost drafts.
AgentsRoom Scratchpad : a prompt editor pinned to the footer, always one click away.
A real editor, not a single-line input
The Scratchpad is a proper text area, not a one-line input. Compact mode gives you plenty of vertical space for a few paragraphs. Large mode fills the window so you can write a 500-word prompt, a detailed spec or a structured plan without squinting. Your favorite mode is remembered between sessions, so the editor opens the way you like it, every time.
Your draft is saved automatically as you type. Close the popover, switch project, quit the app, restart your Mac, come back tomorrow : your prompt is still there, ready to continue. This matters. A good prompt is rarely one-shot. You write a first pass, you step away, you come back, you notice the missing piece, you fix it, you send. The Scratchpad is the buffer that lets you work that way.
Sending is simple and predictable. The Scratchpad sends to the terminal you are focused on. If an AI agent is open for the selected project, that is the target. Otherwise, the active dev command for that project. Otherwise, the Send button is disabled with a clear message so you know why. No hidden picker, no guessing, no surprise.
The prompt arrives clean. No premature execution, no broken lines, no missing characters. Your text lands in the agent exactly the way you wrote it, even if it spans five paragraphs and includes blank lines, tabs or special characters. So you can stop worrying and focus on the content of the prompt, not on the plumbing.
Everything you need to write a great AI prompt
A focused editor, a safe draft buffer, a bridge to your Prompt Library, a keyboard-first sender. All in one small panel, pinned to the footer.
A real text area, not a terminal
Plenty of room for long prompts. Proper backspace, cursor, selection, copy-paste, multi-line editing. You write a prompt the way you write an email : with care.
Your draft is never lost
Everything you type is saved on your machine automatically. It survives app quit, Mac restart and project switch. Close the popover, come back tomorrow : your prompt is still there.
Compact and large modes
Compact for a quick paragraph, large mode close to fullscreen for 500-word prompts. One click to toggle. Your preferred mode is remembered between sessions.
Clean, complete delivery
Your prompt is sent to the agent as one block. Every line break, tab and special character is preserved. No premature execution, no partial paste, no surprise.
Cmd+Enter to send
Keyboard-first. Press Cmd+Enter in the editor and the full prompt goes straight to the focused agent terminal. No mouse, no menu, no friction.
Sends to the right terminal
The Scratchpad sends to the AI agent you are looking at, or to the active dev command for the project. No picker, no ambiguity : it follows your focus.
Visual send confirmation
A quick green Sent indicator flashes after delivery, then the button returns to normal. Zero doubt that the prompt actually reached the agent.
Draft stays after sending
After sending, the text stays in the Scratchpad. Edit, resend, rephrase, iterate. You decide when to clear with the explicit Clear button.
Native macOS dictation
Click Dictate : the editor is focused and ready. Trigger the macOS dictation shortcut and speak your prompt. Think out loud while walking to the coffee machine, and a clean prompt appears in the Scratchpad.
Save as reusable prompt
A good draft becomes a reusable prompt in one click. Save as prompt opens the Prompt Library pre-filled, ready to name and file. Your team inherits it with the project.
Prompt Library, one click away
Click Library : the project Prompt Library opens without touching your draft. Pick a snippet, close, come back, your work is intact, ready to complete and send.
Stays on your machine
The Scratchpad is on purpose kept on your Mac. Nothing leaves your machine. If you want a prompt shared across machines or teammates, save it as a reusable prompt in the Library.
Hide it if you don't need it
A single toggle in the settings hides the Scratchpad button. Enabled by default so you discover it, never mandatory, never in the way.
Your prompt arrives whole, every time
If you have ever pasted a long prompt into a terminal and watched it run halfway through, you know the problem. A blank line between two paragraphs becomes a premature Enter, and your prompt breaks into two separate commands, neither of which makes sense.
The Scratchpad solves this. Your text is sent to the agent as one single block, exactly as you wrote it. Your paragraphs stay paragraphs, your blank lines stay blank lines, nothing runs too early. The difference between writing a good prompt and fighting the terminal.
Your prompt is never lost
Every character you type is saved to your machine as you type it. The Scratchpad picks up exactly where you left it, no matter what happens in between.
This is deliberate. A good prompt takes time. You start it, you walk away, you come back. You commit a change, you switch to another project for thirty minutes, you return. You quit the app at 7 PM, you open it again at 9 AM. Your draft is always there. Your half-rewritten plan is always there. Your five-paragraph brief is always there.
Dictate your prompt, out loud
The Scratchpad works with native macOS dictation. Click Dictate, the editor is focused and ready, and a short tooltip reminds you of the macOS keyboard setting if you have never set it up. A quick button opens Keyboard Settings in System Preferences.
Once the system shortcut is configured, you can speak your prompts. Think out loud on the walk to your desk, dictate a prompt while pacing the kitchen, turn a messy thought into a clean multi-sentence brief for your agent without ever touching the keyboard.
A bridge to your Prompt Library
Two buttons link the Scratchpad to your project Prompt Library. Save as prompt pushes your current draft into the library as a named, reusable template. It can now travel with your project, be shared with your team and reused anytime you need that exact prompt again.
Library opens the full Prompt Library without touching your draft. Browse your saved prompts, copy a snippet, see what worked last week, then close : the Scratchpad is still right there with your in-progress prompt exactly as you left it. A clean back-and-forth between the buffer and the library, one click each way.
The two bad options developers used to have
Option A : type the prompt directly in the terminal. No proper rereading. No comfortable correction. Zero persistence if the window closes. Terminals are interactive command lines. They were not designed to compose a structured 500-word brief for a coding agent.
Option B : open Notes, Obsidian or VS Code on the side, draft there, then copy-paste into the terminal. Flow broken. Contexts split. Windows overlap. And the paste into the shell often breaks, swallows characters or triggers partial execution anyway.
Neither is a real solution. Both are workarounds. The Scratchpad replaces both : one editor, in the right app, next to the right terminal, that remembers what you wrote. That is all, and that is enough.
How it works
Open the Scratchpad
Click the Scratchpad button in the AgentsRoom status bar, at the bottom of the window. A popover opens. An accent dot on the button means a draft is already in progress.
Draft your prompt
Type your prompt in the editor. Use compact mode for a paragraph, or click the Maximize icon to go close to fullscreen for longer prompts. Your preferred mode is remembered.
Reread, revise, iterate
The editor has everything you expect : multi-line editing, cursor, selection, copy-paste, undo. Restructure your prompt as many times as you like. Nothing is lost, ever.
Dictate if you prefer
Click Dictate to focus the editor and get a quick reminder about macOS dictation settings. Trigger the system shortcut and speak your prompt. It lands as text in the Scratchpad.
Send with Cmd+Enter
Press Cmd+Enter, or click Send. The full prompt goes straight to the focused agent terminal. A green Sent indicator flashes briefly to confirm.
Save or iterate
Your draft stays in the buffer after sending, so you can edit and resend if needed. Or click Save as prompt to promote it to the Prompt Library as a reusable template.
A prompt editor by many names
The Scratchpad is the kind of tool people have been reinventing on their own for years. Here is the vocabulary it replaces, all inside a single integrated experience for your AI coding agents.
FAQ
What exactly is the AgentsRoom Scratchpad ?
It is a small prompt editor built into AgentsRoom, pinned to the footer. You use it to draft long, structured prompts for your AI coding agents, without typing them directly into the terminal or opening a separate Notes window. Your draft is saved automatically, and one click sends the whole prompt to the focused agent.
Why not just type the prompt directly in the terminal ?
Terminals were not designed for composing structured multi-paragraph prompts. Rereading is awkward, correcting a past line is painful, blank lines can trigger premature execution, and the text disappears the moment the window closes. The Scratchpad gives you a proper editor with automatic save, so you can write serious prompts without any of that friction.
Will my prompt arrive complete, even with blank lines or special characters ?
Yes. Your text is sent to the agent as one single block, exactly as you wrote it. Paragraphs stay paragraphs, blank lines stay blank lines, tabs and special characters are preserved. Nothing runs too early, nothing is swallowed, nothing breaks.
Where is my draft stored ? Is it in the cloud ?
Your draft stays on your Mac. Nothing leaves your machine. The Scratchpad is on purpose kept local. If you want a prompt shared across machines or teammates, save it as a reusable prompt in the Prompt Library, which travels with your project.
Which agent does the Scratchpad send to ?
The terminal you are focused on for the selected project. First, an open AI agent (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Aider) if any. Otherwise, the active dev command for the project. If nothing is active, the Send button is disabled with a clear message. No picker, no ambiguity : it sends to the terminal you are looking at.
What is the difference between Scratchpad and Prompt Library ?
The Scratchpad is a draft space for the prompt you are writing right now : one item at a time, local to your machine. The Prompt Library is a permanent collection of reusable prompts organized in folders, shared with your team through your project. Save as prompt promotes a working Scratchpad draft into the library. They work together : Scratchpad for writing, Library for reuse.
Does dictation really work ?
Yes, through native macOS Dictation. Click Dictate, the editor is focused, and a quick button takes you to Keyboard Settings if you need to turn dictation on for the first time. Once the OS shortcut is set, you can dictate into the Scratchpad and speak your prompts out loud.
Can I disable the Scratchpad if I do not need it ?
Yes. A single toggle in the AgentsRoom settings hides the Scratchpad button. It is enabled by default so you discover it, but it is never mandatory, never in the way.
Does sending the prompt clear the draft ?
No. After a successful send, the text stays in the Scratchpad. You can edit it, resend a corrected version, amend and send again, or clear it explicitly with the Clear button. A brief green Sent indicator confirms the prompt reached the agent.
Is this an alternative to Notes, Obsidian or VS Code for prompts ?
Yes, for prompt writing. Keeping a second app open just to draft a prompt, then copy-pasting into a terminal, is the old workflow. The Scratchpad replaces that : one editor, in the right app, wired to the right terminal, with automatic save. You still use Notes or Obsidian for everything else, you just stop opening them for prompts.
You may also like
Prompt Library
Save your best prompts as reusable templates, organized in folders, shared with your team through your project.
Prompt Engineering for AI coding
The practical guide to writing prompts that ship code. Structure, context, constraints : the patterns that actually work with AI agents.
Dev Terminals
Run and watch your local dev commands right in AgentsRoom, and control them from your phone when you need to step away.
Review the changes
Browse every file change from your AI agents, side-by-side diffs with syntax highlighting. Commit when you are ready.
Write your prompts like they deserve
Download AgentsRoom, open any project, click the Scratchpad button in the footer and start drafting prompts the way your agents deserve. Free for up to 3 projects.
Companion app: monitor your agents on the go
Works with Claude, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, and Aider
Push bugs and requests straight to your public backlog.