Create an agent

Two ways to start

There is no form for a new agent. + New agent opens a New agent dialog with the Agent Builder in it, and you describe the agent in a conversation. Once the builder has created it, the dialog's button turns into Open agent →. Closing the dialog never deletes an agent the builder created.

After that, every part of the agent is on its tabs, and you can edit each part by hand or ask the Agent Builder docked on the left.

Create the invoice exceptions agent

1. Go to Agents and press + New agent.
2. Tell the Agent Builder what the agent is for, for example: "An agent for the finance team that checks an invoice against its purchase order and, when they differ, checks the supplier contract and registers a supplier query."
3. When it has created the agent, press Open agent →.
4. Read and adjust the System Prompt and Settings tabs (below).
5. Add what it can use on the Resources tab.
6. Press Save as version. Nothing reaches anyone yet.
7. Try it on the Chat tab, then activate the version and make the agent available on the Versions & Availability tab. See Agent versions and Where your agent can be reached.

A new agent starts unavailable. It answers nobody but org admins until someone switches it on.

Write the prompt

The prompt is on the System Prompt tab. Its Agent configuration card holds what you write. Your name and Your purpose are shown here and edited on Settings. The other four fields are edited here:

Each field, and Purpose, holds at most 2,000 characters, and a counter shows how much you've used. Mindset refuses to save a wording over the limit. Each field also has a history icon that brings back earlier wordings.

Below it, Added by the platform shows what Mindset appends on every run: the reply language, and situational awareness added at run time from the page the agent runs on. Assembled preview shows the whole prompt the agent receives.

For the invoice agent, keep the prompt to what applies all the time. The order of work (gather, assess, prepare, close) belongs in a script, because the agent must not skip ahead.

The Settings tab

The Configuration card:

Every change here is saved as a new version and goes live when you activate it.

Delete agent sits in its own card below. The agent stops answering anyone. Its history is kept for audit, and an admin can't bring the agent back.

Reply language and the org default

The agent's own language wins. When the agent is set to Inherit, it follows the org's language, and changes when the org's language changes. When neither is set, Mindset's default applies. A version records the language it was saved with, so activating an older version brings back its language too.

The language is an instruction to the model. Mindset doesn't check that replies are in it.

The Resources tab

Resources has one card per kind of thing the agent can use, each with Add:

For the invoice agent, add the finance system's get_invoice, get_purchase_order_for_invoice and register_supplier_query operations, the supplier contracts knowledge base, and the invoice-comparison function. A write such as register_supplier_query also needs its approval. See Approve what an agent can do.

Resources are part of the version. Adding or removing one is an unsaved change until you save, and it reaches people when you activate.

What the Agent Builder can and can't do

The Agent Builder works on the agent you have open. In the New agent dialog it can only create an agent, list agents, read one, and change the agent it just created.

On an agent's page it can:

• Change the name, the five prompt fields, the model and which script the agent runs.
• Add and remove resources: operations, widgets, functions and other agents that already exist.
• Read and restore the agent's earlier versions, and explain what differs between two of them.
• Write or change the script, by handing the work to the Script Builder.
• Set schedules, and read the agent's triggers and their run history.
• Create and run behavior tests.
• Make the agent available when you ask it to. It never opens The Hub, Embedded in your own product or Outside systems on its own.
• Archive or delete the agent.

Every change it makes to the prompt fields, model or script either activates the new version or leaves it staged. It must choose one each time, and it tells you which.

It can't:

• Connect a system. Use the Connection Builder on Connections.
• Build a function or a widget. Use the Function Builder on Functions or the Widget Builder on Widgets. Orca can build all of these for you.
• Approve a write operation. No agent can.

What can go wrong

• The model you want isn't in the list. Only models your org has a provider key for are listed. Add the key first.
• Save is refused. A prompt field is over 2,000 characters. Shorten it, or move the order of work into a script.
• The agent says it can't do something you gave it. The version with that resource isn't active yet. Activate it on Versions & Availability.
• Nobody can reach the agent. A new agent starts unavailable. Switch it on and choose where people reach it.

You're done when

• The agent has a purpose, a personality and the policy rules it must follow, each within 2,000 characters.
• You chose its model and checked whether it inherits the org's reply language.
• Its resources are the smallest set it needs.
• You saved a version, tried it on the Chat tab and activated it.