How to create an agent

A chat answers one question at a time. An agent is for a job that always runs the same way: a saved sequence of steps that PhiBox works through in order, where each step can search a different project and hand its result to the next.

Think of a monthly summary that always means "find the new documents, pull out the changes, write them up". Set that up once as an agent, and running it next month is a single click.

Before you start

Agents live on the Agents screen in the top bar. Every step runs against a project, so you need at least one. And if you want a step to find something in your documents, that project needs documents in it: a step searches a project just as a chat does.

Create your first agent

1. Click Agents in the top bar.
2. Click the + button in the agent selector to open Create new Agent.
3. Fill in:
   • Name: a short label so you can find it again.
   • Description: what this agent is for. Worth writing: it is what tells a colleague whether to run it.
   • Base Instruction: optional. Standing instructions that apply to the whole agent, such as "answer in German" or "always quote the clause number".
   • Group: one or more teams that can use this agent. This setting decides who else sees it.
   • Skill: optional. Attach one or more ready-made abilities instead of building all the behaviour yourself.
4. Click Save. The agent opens, empty, ready for its steps.

Build the workflow

An empty agent does nothing until you give it steps.

1. Click Add Step to add the first step.
2. Configure the step. In practice you only need the first two:
   • Project: which project's documents this step searches.
   • Prompt: the wording used for this step. This is where you say what the step should actually do.
   • System Instruction and Tool Calls Config control how the assistant behaves and what extra abilities it may use. Each project already has sensible ones attached, so leave these as they are until you have a reason to change them.
3. Click Run this step to try it on its own. Build a workflow one step at a time and check each one before adding the next. It is far easier than debugging five steps at once.
4. Add the remaining steps. Drag a step by its handle to reorder it.
5. Click Save changes. Discard changes puts everything back the way it was if you would rather start again.

Tip If part of your instruction changes every time you run the agent (a month, a client name, a document title), write it as a placeholder in the step rather than a fixed value. PhiBox then asks you for it each time you run the agent, and you can reuse the same workflow instead of editing it.

Run it

1. Select the agent in the selector at the top of the Agents screen.
2. Fill in any placeholder values it asks for.
3. Run it, and watch each step report as it finishes. The results appear in tabs, one per step, so you can see what each step contributed.

You can also click the chat icon on an agent to talk to it directly, which is the quickest way to ask it something one-off.

After the run

• Workspace: the folder icon opens the files the run produced. You can download a single file, or take the whole workspace as a ZIP with Download all as ZIP.
• Past runs: the executions list keeps what the agent has done before. Open one to see exactly what it produced that time, which is handy for comparing this month against last.
• Edit anything: the pencil icon on the agent changes its name, description, base instruction, group or skill. The pencil on a step changes that step.
• Copy it: duplicate an agent when you want a variant. Your copy is independent, so editing it does not affect the original.

Your administrator can also make an agent available inside a project's chat, so people can reach it without opening the Agents screen at all.