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Add an agent ​

Add a specialist agent (a prompt, a toolset and budgets) reachable as agent:<name> on every surface, with the same config layering, authorization and run tracking as the built-in ones.

You need:

  • A checkout of the repository and the contributing loop. An agent is data in the tree, so this is a pull request, not a config change.
  • A toolset for it (full, readonly, web, assistant, none) and its turn, token and wall-clock budgets.

Define it ​

Add an entry to AGENTS in src/agents/registry.ts:

ts
docs: {
  name: "docs",
  description: "Answers questions about a repository's documentation; read-only.",
  system: DOCS_SYSTEM,        // the prompt
  toolset: "readonly",
  maxTurns: 20,               // a backstop; the wall clock is the real budget
  maxTokens: 24000,
  maxMinutes: 10,
  resources: { repo: "required" }, // a workspace is provisioned; omit for an agent that needs none
},

Every field is documented on AgentDef in the same file.

FieldWhat it decides
toolsetwhat the model may ask for (The agents and their toolsets lists each)
resourceswhether a run needs a repository checkout; without it no workspace or sandbox is provisioned
effort (optional)the agent's built-in effort, which every config layer beats

Give it a default model ​

yaml
defaults:
  models:
    docs: anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5

Without an entry, the agent falls back to defaults.models.general.

Write its contract ​

Add a spec under docs/reference/specs/ beside agent-general.md and agent-review.md, each criterion bound to a test. npm run specs:check requires every proof to resolve.

Decide who may run it ​

A new agent is open to everyone unless it is listed under restrict.agents (Restrict who can do what).

Try it ​

bash
npm run cli -- ask "agent:docs where is the deploy order specified?"

help lists the agent from the registry; there is no separate registration for Slack, the CLI, HTTP or MCP.

Next ​