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The lane is what fermata.run calls the leash. It is the first of the two layers, and it decides how far a piece advances before it stops for you. It is set per piece, and there are three. The app calls this “Autonomy”.
  • Manual (the default): you drive every step. The piece stops at every phase and waits.
  • Auto: runs now, you watch. The piece advances through the phases on its own, starting immediately.
  • Loop: hands-off, runs when you press Play. The piece is enrolled in the Loop and starts when you play the Loop board.
One word, three things. Loop is the engine that runs pieces hands-off, the Loop board is its view, and the Loop lane is what enrolls a piece in it. The inspector’s “Lane” row spells each one out: “Manual (you drive every step)”, “Auto (runs now, you watch)”, and “Loop (hands-off)”. On a piece card the badge reads just “Manual”, “Auto”, or “Loop”; click it and its menu offers Manual, Auto, and Send to Loop Board, because picking the last one enrolls the piece rather than just tagging it. The New Piece sheet’s segmented control and a draft’s lane picker read Manual, Auto, and Loop.

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Where you choose a lane

There are two moments. At spec approval. When the spec is ready, the approve button carries the lane’s own verb, so the click commits both the approval and the posture: The lane chip beside the button is captioned “Choose how this piece runs after you approve the spec”. The Loop button’s name predates the board’s Spec column. The spec it approves is already written, so the card does not land in Backlog: it queues in Spec, waiting there until you press Play. A label naming a column the card no longer reaches is a known app issue.
The Spec phase with the lane chip open beside the approve button, showing Mark Spec Ready, Run Auto, and Send to Backlog with their hints

At spec approval, the lane picker decides what the approve button does

In the New Piece sheet. Starting a piece from scratch offers the same three as a segmented control. Loop’s primary reads Add to backlog rather than Start piece because Loop work is launched by the board’s Play, not by starting it here. Manual and Auto’s secondary Save to backlog files the piece as a draft on that lane instead of starting it now. Beside the lane control sits a model chip for the spec interview, fixed once the interview starts, and below the description an Attachments (optional) field: reference files the agents can read while working, which travel with the piece through every phase.

Start a piece: name it, pick how far it runs on its own, and start the interview

The New Piece sheet with a title field, a description field, an attachments field, a segmented Manual, Auto, Loop control beside the model chip, and a primary button reading Add to backlog for the Loop lane

The New Piece sheet: the lane, the interview model, and where the piece lands

You can also change the lane later from the piece card’s badge on the Loop board, from the card’s overflow menu, and on a Backlog draft.

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What each lane actually flips

The lane sets two switches and nothing else. Auto runs immediately when you pick it: Run Auto at spec approval, and Start piece in the New Piece sheet, both arm the lane and release it in one click. There are two other ways onto the lane, and both wait for the card’s Play: switching a card to Auto from its badge, and hard-stopping an Auto piece, because a stop re-arms it rather than letting the next transition restart it. The tooltip reads “Release this Auto piece to run on its own. Until you press play it stays armed and parked.” What the lane does not touch is the gates. Switching a piece to Auto or Loop leaves every gate exactly as you set it, and leaves the permission profile alone too. Those are separate controls, covered in gates and permission profiles and approvals.

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When the lane is locked

The badge turns into a read-only chip in two situations, and its tooltip says which:
  • While the piece is running: “Autonomy is locked while this piece is running. Stop it to change the lane.” The runner reads the lane mid-run, so switching it underneath would be unsafe.
  • Once the piece reaches Review or Done: “Autonomy no longer applies once a piece reaches Review or Done.” There is nothing left to advance. Done is terminal, and Review is the human checkpoint by definition.

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Reading the lane later

The piece inspector carries a “Lane” row showing the descriptive label, so you never have to guess which posture a piece is in. The Loop board shows it as the badge on every card. On the phone, spec approval offers Manual and Auto only. The Loop lane is deliberately left off, because there is no Loop board on mobile. See the phone companion.