Creating and configuring Agents

Build powerful agentic workflows that can reason, use tools, and accomplish complex tasks autonomously.

Why use Agents?

Agents go beyond simple prompt-and-response. They can break down complex tasks, decide which tools to use, and iterate on their work without you having to script every step. This makes them a good fit for research, customer support, data processing, and other workflows where the path to the answer is not predictable.

Create an Agent

1. Click Agents in the sidebar under Products.
2. Click New Agent.
3. Choose a starting point.
4. Enter an Agent name and description, then select a model. Claude or GPT models usually work well for Agents.
5. Click Create to open the Agent editor.

Starting from a template is the fastest way to get going. You can customize everything later. If you want to start from scratch, choose AI Assistant and clear the default content. You can also create an Agent from a Product by clicking Add Capability and then New Agent. This creates the Agent and adds it as a Capability in one step.

Configure your Agent

The Agent editor has a sidebar with configuration sections and a main editing area. The sidebar contains About, Model, Safety, and Loop sections.

About

Use About to manage the basics: name, description, icon, and status. Status options are Draft, Active, Paused, and Archived.

Model

Select the model your Agent uses for reasoning.

You can also choose the Agent’s execution mode:

• Use Model lets the Agent reason and respond with the selected model. This is the best choice for most use cases.
• Use Flow lets the Agent run a primary Flow as its brain. Use this when you want tighter control over step-by-step logic.

Behavior

System prompt

The system prompt tells your Agent who it is and how to behave. Focus on goals, constraints, and priorities. The Agent can decide the exact steps.

Example

You are a customer research Agent. Your goal is to gather comprehensive information about customer requests by searching knowledge bases, looking up order history, and analyzing previous interactions. Always be thorough but concise. Prioritize recent information over historical data.

You can also start from a built-in system prompt template such as Helpful Assistant, Customer Support, or Technical Expert.

Temperature

Temperature controls how creative or focused the Agent’s responses are on a scale from 0 to 2. The default value of 0.7 works well for most Agents. Lower values produce more consistent outputs. Higher values allow more variation.

Safety

The Safety section in the sidebar controls tool approval and tool call limits.

Tool Approval requires human approval before the Agent runs a tool call. Use this for higher-stakes workflows where you want a person to review actions before they happen.

Max Tool Calls sets how many tool calls the Agent can make in a single turn, from 1 to 50. This helps prevent excessive tool usage.

Agent Loop

Enable Agent Loop in the sidebar to let your Agent reason across multiple turns by thinking, acting, observing results, and deciding what to do next.

When Agent Loop is enabled, you can configure these settings:

• Max Turns from 2 to 20 sets the maximum number of reasoning iterations. The Agent stops when it completes the task or reaches this limit.
• Reflection enables periodic self-assessment at a configurable interval to help longer-running Agents stay on track.
• Cost Budget sets a maximum spend in USD for a single execution. The Agent stops if it reaches that limit.

Start with 5 to 10 max turns and adjust after testing. Many tasks finish in only a few iterations.

Tools

The tools area is where you give your Agent access to tools and sub-Agents.

Adding tools

1. Click the tools area in the Agent editor.
2. Click Add Tool or Configure Tools.
3. Select the tools you want to add.
4. Click Apply Changes.

The Agent decides which tools to call based on the task. You do not need to script the order.

Writing good tool descriptions

Tool descriptions help the Agent understand when to use a tool, why to use it, and what result to expect. Clear descriptions improve tool selection.

Good

Searches the knowledge base for articles matching a query. Use this to find documentation, FAQs, or policy information. Returns the top 5 matching articles with titles and snippets.

Too vague

Searches stuff.

Write tool descriptions the way you would explain the tool to a new teammate. Say what it does, when to use it, and what it returns.

Sub-Agents

You can also add other Flows or Agents as tools. This helps you build more advanced workflows, such as a research Agent that delegates parts of the job to specialized sub-Agents.

Test your Agent

1. In the Agent editor, click Test Agent.
2. Enter a test message or goal.
3. Send the message and review how the Agent responds.

The test panel shows the decisions the Agent makes, the tools it calls, and the results it receives. This makes it easier to tune prompts, tools, and loop settings.

Test with a range of realistic inputs, including edge cases. This helps you refine the system prompt, tool selection, and loop settings.

Add your Agent to a Product

Once your Agent is configured and tested, add it to a Product so it can be used through that Product’s Surfaces.

1. Open your Product.
2. Click Add Capability.
3. Select your Agent.
4. Click Add Capability.

If you want more detail on how Capabilities work inside a Product, see Adding Capabilities to a product.

Your Agent is then available through any Surface connected to that Product, such as chat, API, or MCP.

Best practices

• Start with a template. Use a built-in template to move faster, then tailor it to your use case.
• Keep tools focused. Start with two or three tools and add more only when needed. Fewer, well-described tools usually produce better decisions.
• Write clear instructions. A strong system prompt with clear goals and constraints improves Agent quality.
• Test iteratively. Try varied inputs and refine the Agent based on how it reasons.
• Use Agent Loop thoughtfully. Turn it on when the task benefits from multi-step reasoning, then set sensible limits.
• Use cost budgets. Cost budgets help you control spend for each execution.

Next steps

• Adding Capabilities to a product
• What are Surfaces?
• What are Agents?