The Athena Guide · 08

Agents

Work Athena does by herself: on a schedule, when something happens, together with other agents

What an agent is

An agent is a job Athena does by herself, with a role and a task: «every morning at 8 summarize the news about…», «when a file arrives in the folder, check it». You see and manage them on the Agents page.

Creating one

The easiest way is to ask Athena, or use /agent: she asks you the questions (what it must do, when, what to deliver, when to alert you) and then creates it. On the Agents page you can also create and edit one by hand.

When it starts

• on a schedule (every day, every hour, certain days…);
• by hand, with «Run now»;
• when a file arrives in a folder;
• after another agent (a chain);
• when an email arrives in a mailbox;
• from outside, with a webhook.

An agent that starts on its own also works while you are away. In Data or Manual it asks for confirmation before commands: if nobody answers within 15 minutes it counts as no, and that step is skipped. For an agent that must work without you, such as one watching a print at night, choose Lore: Athena reminds you when she creates it, and the agent's form says so.

What it knows and uses

Each agent can have its own Library documents, reference sites, the tools and skills it may use (all, or only the ones you choose), its mailboxes and collaborators (other agents to ask). It keeps its own memory from one run to the next: a few notes it writes itself.

In Previous runs you choose how it starts again. With Starts fresh every time (the default) it reads only its instructions, its memory and what just happened: it is fast, and suits mail, files and checks. With Remembers them it also rereads the earlier runs, to compare with yesterday. The results always stay in its chat.

Alerts and results

The result goes into the agent's chat, or into a file. On Telegram (set up in Settings → Alerts) it alerts you always, only when something you ask for happens, or never. If it needs an answer from you during a run, it asks and waits.

Keeping an eye on them

• Live, at the top of the page: who is working and where they are.
• The run log: when, how it started, the plan, the steps, the outcome.
• Test (a dry run) and test cases judged by Athena; versions to go back to an earlier one.
• Fixed flows: steps in order (do, if, ask, alert, call an API) when you need a procedure that is always the same.

Sharing them

You can share one of your agents: in its row open Share…, choose the people (an administrator can also choose everyone) and press Publish. The people you chose find it in the From others section, read its instructions and, if they want, add it. You can also ask Athena in the chat («add the shared flights agent»): she finds it and asks for confirmation before adding it.

• Whoever adds it gets an agent of their own: it works with their permissions, their mail, their documents and their memory. If your agent has a schedule, their copy starts paused until they resume it.
• Instructions, role, sites, tools, fixed flow and test cases come from you. If you change them, those who added it get them when you press Publish the new version.
• With Make it mine whoever added it unlinks it, and from then on changes it as they like.
• If you stop sharing it, or remove it, those who added it keep it as it was.