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In the current UI, Agents are labeled Assistants. This page uses “Agent” for the concept and “Assistant” where it matches current UI labels.

Why Agents

Runlayer lets you build multiple Agents, each for a different job. Instead of one general assistant with broad access, you create focused agents for specific workflows, teams, or risk levels. Each Agent combines:
  • Instructions (main prompt + optional skills)
  • A chosen model
  • A curated set of MCP connectors and tools
  • Optional deployment channels (Slack, schedules, webhooks)
This gives you reusable, policy-governed automation you can scale across use cases.

Agents for any purpose

You can create agents for almost any internal workflow, for example:
  • Support agent: summarize tickets, query product docs, draft replies
  • Incident agent: triage alerts, pull logs, post status updates
  • RevOps agent: collect CRM context, prep account briefs
  • Security agent: review policy denials, summarize risk events
  • Platform ops agent: monitor MCP health and failed tool calls
  • Leadership reporting agent: weekly usage + adoption summaries
Pattern: one purpose per agent, minimal tool scope, clear prompt contract.

Set up an agent

1

Create the Assistant

Go to Assistants and click Create new.In setup, define:
  • Name
  • Description (optional)
  • Main prompt (required)
  • Privacy: Private or Public (workspace-visible)
  • Built-in tools (for example, Web Fetch)
2

Attach connectors and tools

Add one or more connectors (MCP servers), then select which tools are enabled. This is the core capability boundary for the agent.
3

Configure model + behavior

Open the agent detail page and set:
  • Model (from your workspace-configured model list)
  • Instructions (prompt)
  • Skills
  • Optional env vars (if enabled in your workspace)
4

Choose deployment mode

Use one or more:
  • Playground for interactive chat and testing
  • Schedules for recurring runs
  • Webhooks for event-driven runs
  • Slack integration (if configured)
5

Validate in Activity

Check run history for status, token/cost usage, and execution trace. Tighten prompt/tool scope before broad rollout.

Multi-agent strategy

Use multiple agents instead of one overloaded agent:
  • Split by business function (Support, Security, Ops, GTM)
  • Split by data sensitivity (low-risk vs privileged systems)
  • Split by trigger type (human chat vs scheduled vs webhook)
  • Keep prompts short and role-specific
  • Keep connector/tool permissions narrow per agent

Ownership and access

  • Agent owners can edit core settings
  • Public agents are accessible to workspace users
  • Non-owners may have read/run access but not edit rights
  • All calls still pass through your Runlayer policy model and scanner stack

Use Runlayer MCP inside agents

Runlayer MCP is a first-party connector that lets an agent reason about your Runlayer workspace itself (analytics, audit logs, inventory, governance). To use it in an agent:
  1. Install/enable the Runlayer server in your workspace.
  2. Add that connector to the agent.
  3. Test with focused prompts (examples below).
Example prompts:
  • “Use Runlayer MCP to export top tools used in the last 30 days and summarize top failure causes.”
  • “List recent policy denied events and group by connector.”
  • “Show all connectors with low usage but high error rate.”
  • “List pending access requests and summarize by team.”
Mutating Runlayer MCP actions are confirm-gated (for example confirm=true) and permission-gated (admin/owner where required).

Agents vs Agent Accounts

  • Agents (Assistants): UI-managed AI workers with prompt + tool curation
  • Agent Accounts: OAuth client identities for programmatic/API access
If you are building machine-to-machine automation, see Agent Accounts.