Agents: create and optimise
Create an agent from a name, type, description and system prompt, save the prompt as written or optimised, read its view page and publish new versions without changing what runs. For whoever writes or maintains an agent.
Steps
Create an agent
- In Agent Management click Create Agent. The form is headed Create a new Agent.
- Agent Name (required, up to 80 characters, with a counter): "Identifies the agent in the catalogue, in the chat composer's agent picker, and in workflow nodes."
- Agent Type (required): Specialist or Supervisor. Changing it clears the description.
- Description (required, up to 1,000 characters).
- System Prompt (required). The counter reads
<size> / 8.0 MB. Above 50,000 characters an advisory appears: large prompts cost more per turn, in chat the coordinator reads the first ~32 KB (8,000 tokens), workflow nodes receive the whole prompt up to the model's ~190k-token input limit, so move reference material into a knowledge graph. It never blocks saving. - Choose how the prompt is saved; Create Agent stays disabled until you do. Use as written keeps it exactly as typed ("Saving with the prompt exactly as written."). Or click Optimise Prompt: Studio streams a rewrite (Cancel stops it) with "security guardrails, behavioral rules, and AlphaAgent's standardized structure", then shows Yours and Optimised side by side with any Suggested description.
- Use optimised applies the rewrite and its description and locks the field ("Prompt is locked after optimization."); Revert unlocks. Keep mine leaves your text untouched and turns Use as written on.
- Click Create Agent (v1). It reads Creating..., then the list shows the new row with
(v1)and Inactive.
Open an agent
Click its row. The view page (/agents/view/<agent id>) has a header with Agent Name, ID, Type, Version (v2) and Status (Active when a configuration is live, else Not Active), plus Create New Version, Share (Libraries and sharing) and Delete. A Shared to strip lists share requests; Pulled from appears on a copy pulled from a Resource Store. Sections:
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Basic Information | Name, type and description, read-only. |
| Agent Versions | One row per version: Version, Description (cut at 60 characters), Created, Status. The running version carries Active; others a dash. Create Version equals the header button. |
| Model | Which foundation model does what; see Configure and activate. |
| System Prompt | The first 300 characters, with Expand and Collapse; "No system prompt configured" if none. |
| Agent Map | The wiring editor; see Configure and activate. |
| Metadata | Created and Last Updated. |
Create a new version
Every save of the name, description or prompt is a new version; the live configuration keeps its version until you pick the new one in Configure and Save & Activate.
- Click Create New Version or Create Version. The form is headed Update Agent (wiring is done from the Agent Map).
- Agent Name is prefilled; Agent Type is read-only, "(type cannot be changed after creation)".
- Description and System Prompt are prefilled from the current version, ready to edit. Description is Description * for a specialist and Description (Optional) for a supervisor, up to 1,000 characters.
- Edit the prompt, then Use as written or Optimise Prompt, as above.
- The footer names the result ("Saving creates v3"). Click Update agent. The header Version and the Agent Versions table gain the new number; an Active badge stays where it was.
What you should see
A new agent shows Status Not Active, one row v1 with no badge, and an Agent Map reading "Configure dependencies to activate this agent. Click "Configure" to begin." It stays out of Chat's picker until you configure and activate it.
Notes
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Agent Name | up to 80 characters |
| Description | up to 1,000 characters |
| System Prompt | up to 8 MiB (shown as 8.0 MB); over the cap Studio names the byte count and disables saving |
| Large-prompt advisory | above 50,000 characters, informational |
| Agent Type | fixed after creation |
| Saving the prompt | Use as written, or Optimise Prompt then Use optimised or Keep mine; required before Create Agent and Update agent |
- Optimise Prompt fails: an "Error:" line appears under the buttons and your draft is unchanged. Create or Update fails: the server's message appears above the footer. "Agent not found": the agent was deleted; click Back. "Missing agentId": open the agent from the list.