> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aliengh.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The Alien panel

> Where you describe components, ask the project agent, browse the library, and link your key.

The panel sits glued to the side of the Grasshopper window and moves with it. Open it with **PANEL** on any Alien component, or double-click the component. It follows whichever component you select.

<Tip>Prefer it docked inside Rhino? Click the dock button in the panel's header, or set `"panel": "rhino"` in [Settings](/reference/settings).</Tip>

## The header

| Control | What it does |
| - | - |
| Model picker | The model that writes your components. Default: Claude Haiku 5.5 |
| **⚙** Settings | Themes and colours, and a link to the settings file |
| **?** Help | Connect OpenRouter, getting started, what costs money, troubleshooting |
| Dock / undock | Move the panel into Rhino, or back beside Grasshopper |

## The selected component

When you select an Alien component, the panel shows its name, language, status and any error, then:

* **Describe box:** describe a new component (nothing selected) or a change to the selected one. See [Describe a component](/guides/describe-a-component).
* **Requests:** every request you made, with each attempt, its outcome and what it cost.
* **Inputs:** the current values.
* **Code:** the script itself, with **Open in editor** and **Show file**.
* **Earlier versions:** every version Alien kept. **Restore** brings one back.

## Project agent

<Info>New since 0.02-alpha: arrives in the next beta.</Info>

Switch the panel to **Project agent** and ask in plain words:

```text theme={null}
set up levels and grids for three storeys
```

The agent sees your whole canvas, including what you've selected, and keeps a memory for each Grasshopper file (ask it to "remember" a fact about the project). It searches the library first and suggests or places components you already have. When nothing fits, it describes a new one. It places, wires, sets inputs, edits scripts, removes components, checks results and looks at the viewport to check its own work. Each step shows as a chip as it goes.

* It never presses a **Generate** button, which spends credit, unless you ask it to.
* **Stop** cancels. **Cmd/Ctrl+Z** undoes what it changed.
* It costs about US\$0.03–0.15 a request with the default model, Claude Sonnet 5.5, more when it looks at the viewport.

## Library

Every component in your script folder with a header, sorted into categories: Site & context, Building elements, Massing & objects, Entourage, Materials, Views & drawings, Data & lists, Geometry, Analysis and Utilities (the next beta adds **Create**, for the generators). It's the panel's **Nodes** tab. Search, filter by category, and click a component to place it on the canvas. **+ New blank node** starts from scratch.

Ready-made components carry a **suite** tag. In the next beta, the library opens on **Start here**: a blank component, 3D object, 2D object, symbol, material, display mode, views, layout and exploded axo.

<Accordion title="How components get their category">
  1. A `# CATEGORY:` line in the script's header, if there is one. Described components get one automatically.
  2. Otherwise a model sorts it once, from the header comments only, never the code. The answer is cached in `.alien/library.json`.
  3. Until then, a keyword guess.

  Set `"classify": "off"` in [Settings](/reference/settings) to sort by keywords only.
</Accordion>

## Objects

What the generators made, with thumbnails: 3D objects, materials and drawings. (In 0.02-alpha this tab is called **Generated**.) For each one you can:

* **Bake block:** an object or drawing goes into Rhino as a block, at real size, on the *Alien assets* layer.
* **Add material:** a texture becomes a real-size render material on the selected objects.
* **Place node:** place the component that made it, with the same inputs. It comes back free from the cache.

In the next beta this becomes **Objects**, and adds 2D objects, symbols, display modes and **building types**: the wall, slab, roof, stair and balustrade types, doors, windows and section profiles you saved with a type component's **Save** button. **Copy record** copies a type as JSON.

## Help

**?** opens Help. It opens by itself the first time, when no key is linked. **Connect OpenRouter** takes you through it step by step: create an account, add credit, create a key with a limit, paste it, and **Link key**. Alien checks the key with OpenRouter before saving it, and shows the credit left, the key's own limit and when it expires. **Check credit** and **Remove** are there later. The panel only ever shows the first and last few characters of your key.

## Themes

**⚙** opens the themes: Alien, Cursor Dark, One Dark, Dracula, Monokai, Nord, Tokyo Night, Solarized Dark, Solarized Light, High Contrast, Light and GitHub Light. Or pick your own background, text and accent colours. Your components, the canvas text box and the panel all follow it.


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