Power Steering (Experimental Feature)

The "Power Steering" experimental feature (POWER_STEERING) is designed to enhance the consistency of Roo Code's responses by more frequently reminding the underlying Large Language Model (LLM) about its current mode definition and any custom instructions.

How It Works

When Power Steering is enabled, Roo Code constantly reinforces the LLM's understanding of its assigned role (e.g., "You are a helpful coding assistant") and any specific guidelines provided by the user (e.g., "Always provide code examples in Python").

This is achieved by explicitly including the modeDetails.roleDefinition and modeDetails.customInstructions within the information sent to the LLM with each interaction.

Goal: The primary goal is to ensure the LLM adheres more strictly to its defined persona and follows user-specific instructions more consistently. If you find Roo deviating from its role or overlooking custom rules, Power Steering can help maintain its focus.

Trade-off: These frequent reminders consume additional tokens in each message sent to the LLM. This means:

• Increased token usage per message.
• Potentially higher operational costs.
• The context window may be filled more quickly.

It's a balance between stricter adherence to instructions and resource consumption.

Default Status: Disabled.

Technical Details

• Experiment ID: powerSteering
• Mechanism:
  • The feature's status is checked by the getEnvironmentDetails function.
  • If enabled, the current mode's roleDefinition and customInstructions are added to the details sent to the LLM.
  • These details are wrapped in <environment_details> tags and become part of the context for each LLM interaction.
• Impact: By frequently including the role definition and custom instructions, the LLM is steered to generate responses more aligned with these parameters.

Enabling This Feature

Power Steering is managed within the "Experimental Features" section of Roo Code's Advanced Settings.

1. Open Roo Code settings ( icon in the top right corner).
2. Navigate to "Advanced Settings".
3. Locate the "Experimental Features" area.
4. Toggle the "Power Steering" option.
5. Save your changes.

For general information on experimental features, see Experimental Features Overview.

Feedback

Please report any issues or suggestions regarding this feature on the Roo Code GitHub Issues page. Your feedback is crucial for improving Roo Code.