---
title: "Evolution Threads explained"
description: "How Evonx plans, designs, executes, and publishes a change - and where you stay in control."
url: https://evonx.ai/docs/evolve/evolution-threads
locale: en
updated: 2026-09-04
---

# Evolution Threads explained

How Evonx plans, designs, executes, and publishes a change - and where you stay in control.

An Evolution Thread is how Evonx handles a change that deserves structure: one
request, carried from plan to merged pull request in stages you can watch, steer,
and stop. If the chat is where you talk, a thread is where work actually happens.

## When a thread starts

Small questions get answered in chat. When your request means changing the product
— new feature, redesigned screen, altered data model — Evonx opens an Evolution
Thread for it. Each thread has one goal, its own timeline, and its own isolated
workspace where code changes accumulate until you approve them.

## The four stages

1. **Plan.** The AI breaks your request into concrete steps and maps each one to
   the repository it touches (for a typical project: the web app, the API, or
   both). You see the plan before anything is built — objections are cheapest
   here.

2. **Design.** For visual work, the thread proposes
   [mockups](/docs/evolve/design-and-mockups) and, where useful,
   [user-flow diagrams](/docs/evolve/user-flow-diagrams). You pick a direction or
   ask for another round; code waits for your approval.

3. **Execute.** The AI writes code in the thread's workspace, split into steps
   that are [individually verified](/docs/evolve/automated-testing). Progress
   streams live into the thread, and the workspace stays locked to this thread
   while a run is active so parallel work can't collide.

4. **Publish.** The result lands as a pull request per repository. Check it in a
   [preview](/docs/preview-and-debug/preview-hub) first, then merge — or reject
   with feedback and the thread revises. Details:
   [Publishing changes](/docs/evolve/publishing-changes).

## Steering a running thread

- **Reply in the thread** at any stage — course corrections mid-plan or mid-design
  are normal, not exceptions.
- **Attach context**: screenshots, an
  [annotated preview](/docs/preview-and-debug/annotate-preview), or images of what
  you want. See [Models, plan mode & chat sessions](/docs/evolve/models-and-sessions)
  for everything you can attach and configure.
- **Let it run.** Execution continues in the background; you don't need to keep
  the page open.

## Threads and your repositories

Nothing a thread does touches your default branch until you merge its pull
request. That's the contract: experiment freely in threads, keep `main` yours.

## Related

- [Evolve your app with AI](/docs/get-started/evolve-your-app) — a first thread,
  walked through with the Garage Usta example.
- [Effective prompting on Evonx](/docs/evolve/effective-prompting) — requests that
  plan well.