# Talk to your crew

Every agent session gets a name. Say the name first, and the request goes straight to that session.

Canonical: https://brainplane.app/docs/crew/

## Every session has a name

Each Claude Code, Codex or Grok session brainplane sees gets a short name: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and so on through the NATO alphabet. No 2 live sessions share a name, and a session keeps its name until it ends.

You see the name in Sessions, in the Inbox, in the menu bar and in Expert mode. brainplane also shows it on the terminal: the iTerm2 tab, the tmux window and the herdr pane.

Prefer your own names, such as Chase, Tom or Max? Put them in Settings, Voice, Crew names. New sessions take them first. To rename 1 session, click its name in Sessions.

## Say the name first

Start a request with a name, typed in the bar or spoken:

- "Bravo, review the Halden letter."
- "Chase, can you build the settings page?"

The request goes to that session after 2 seconds. Press Escape to cancel. brainplane types it into that exact terminal tab, with the same checks as an answer: the session must be idle, with no question open, and nothing may have changed in it since.

Without a name, the request works as before: brainplane proposes an agent and a topic on a card, and nothing runs before you press Run.

## Speech errors and close names

Dictation sometimes hears "Alfa" or "Brava". brainplane accepts a name 1 letter off when it starts with the same letter, and the common spoken forms of the NATO names. When 2 live names are about as close, it asks which one and types nothing.

A name nobody holds types nothing either. The card lists the live names.

## Everyone at once

"Everyone, commit your work" goes to every live session of the topic on screen, after you press Send on the card. It never reaches another topic.

## Speech on this Mac

Settings, Voice, On this Mac (Parakeet v3) downloads an open model by NVIDIA, about 3 GB, on your press. It understands 25 languages, English and French included, and runs on Apple silicon. Once downloaded it is the default voice engine. Your audio never leaves the Mac: the engine runs with every network connection blocked.

You can still pick Aqua Voice, superwhisper, another dictation app or OpenAI speech.