Chapter 2 of 10
Agents
An agent is a teammate you message with work. Each one has a name, its own cloud computer, and its own conversation with you. It runs either Claude Code on your Claude subscription or Codex on your ChatGPT subscription, chosen when it is created and kept for life. Everything it builds waits for it in its home folder between turns.
How to create an agent
Your workplace starts with four agents, but a new project often wants one of its own. Open a room on Home and press New agent at the foot of the Agents section. The dialog asks one question: Claude Code or Codex. That is the whole form.
The name and picture are assigned for you, from a pool of human names you are not already using. Model, effort and machine start at their defaults, and you can change all three later on the agent’s screen. If you have not signed in a subscription for the tool you chose, you are sent to sign one in first (see Your subscriptions).
The new card reads Setting up — a minute or two, and it is ready in about that. If the machine cannot be built, the half-made agent is removed. A workplace holds up to twenty agents, counted across everyone in it; at twenty, delete one you no longer need before you create the next (see What runs where). Giving one its first job is in Talking to agents.
The New agent question: what should it run, with the two choices, Claude Code on your Claude subscription or Codex on your ChatGPT subscription.
The Agents list
A room lists every agent of yours in it, most recently used first. Each card is a glance at how that agent is doing.
- The context ring around its face shows how full its conversation memory is. It turns amber from 67% and red from 90%, when the agent should start a fresh chat.
- Its model and effort, and its machine shape.
- A state line: Now with the elapsed time while it works, Ready or Active 4m ago when it is not, and lines such as 2 proposals waiting on you or Session limit when something needs you.
- A one-sentence recap of its latest work, rewritten after every turn.
Tap a card to open the chat. An agent that is still setting up or out of session opens its own screen instead, and a paused agent with no subscription opens Your subscriptions.
The Agents list of a room: each card with its face inside a context ring, its model and effort, its machine, its state line and a one-line recap of its latest work.
How to change how an agent thinks
Tap the name or face in the chat header to open the agent’s own screen. The header also names the room the agent works in. The screen shows the recap, the Thinks with, Machine and Room rows, and the software card.
Tap Thinks with to open How ‹name› thinks. A choice saves the moment you tap it and begins on the next turn; a turn already running finishes as it started. The catalog depends on the tool.
- Claude Code:
opus, the default,fableandsonnet. Effort: medium, high, xhigh, max. - Codex:
gpt-6-sol, the default, plusgpt-6-astra,gpt-6-luna,gpt-5.6-sol,gpt-5.6-terra,gpt-5.6-lunaandgpt-5.5. Most offer low through ultra; the luna models stop at max, andgpt-5.5at xhigh.
The default effort is high for both. The heavy levels, xhigh, max and ultra, are marked Much more compute: they think much longer and spend the subscription much faster. Worth it on a hard problem, expensive as an everyday setting.
Ruby’s own screen: her face inside its context ring, the model and effort she thinks with, her machine line, and the software card with Claude Code, the machine software and her manual.
The machine
Each agent has a dedicated virtual computer on the cloud, with a full shell, outbound internet and git. New agents are built on 2 dedicated cores and 4 GB. The other sizes are in Machine sizes.
To resize one agent, tap the Machine row on its screen. The picker offers dedicated and shared cores and marks the rung new agents get as standard. A size change never touches the agent’s files. A sleeping machine simply wakes on the new size. An awake one restarts for about a minute, after you confirm with Change size, and while the agent is working the change waits for the turn to finish.
Only the agent’s home folder survives a machine software update, so ask for anything that matters to be pushed to a repository. Resizing is yours to do; an agent never changes its own machine.
Sleep and wake
A machine sleeps about three quiet minutes after its last turn, and wakes in seconds when you send a message. The Machine row on the agent’s screen says which it is, and when asleep adds It wakes on your next message.
Sleep is safe. Every file and every unfinished piece of work is there when it wakes. A running background job keeps the machine awake, as do a turn in progress, setup, an open terminal and an update being installed.
A visitor can wake a machine too. A page the agent serves from its own address is reachable while it sleeps, but the first load takes about ten seconds. For hosting that never sleeps, see Sites and domains.
Rooms
A room is a team inside your workplace. A new workplace opens with Room 1 and Room 2; rename them and add more as you go. An agent always belongs to a room, so a room has to exist before an agent can be created in it.
Agents, notes and secrets belong to a room. Repositories, knowledge pages, sites and Drive belong to the whole workplace, so every room’s agents reach the same code and the same pages.
To move an agent, tap the Room row on its screen. The picker, Move ‹name›, says what changes: what the agent can reach. Its machine and chat stay put, and the move lands at its next turn. A moved agent stops receiving the old room’s keys; see A key belongs to a room.
Teammates’ agents appear in a room too, grouped by the person who drives each one. Tapping one opens a read-only page; only its owner can message it or change how it runs. Creating, renaming and ordering rooms is in Workplace and rooms.
The briefing
Each room has its own briefing, at the top of that room on Home’s Rooms tab. It is the fastest way to catch up on a room after a day away: three to six bullets on its last seven days, written from your own conversations only. Nothing writes it on its own. Press Refresh and it is written for you. The other rooms keep theirs.
The control next to Refresh opens Recap model & effort. Choices there apply to your next briefing and change nothing about how any agent thinks.
A room’s briefing on Home: what each agent there is on, and the one proposal waiting for a decision.
Updates
Machines update themselves: each is brought up to the pinned version of Claude Code or Codex just before it goes to sleep. Most of the time there is nothing to do. The software card on the agent’s screen shows where it stands, and when a version is waiting you can press Update Claude Code, Update Codex or Update machine software yourself. The last one asks first, because it restarts the machine for about a minute; files are kept. Both buttons are locked while the agent is working.
Removing an agent
Delete this agent is at the bottom of the agent’s screen. You type the name to confirm. The machine and everything on it are erased for good, its private keys with it, and the chat stops answering. Anything never pushed to a repository or uploaded to Drive goes too. A retired agent, whose owner has left the workplace, has the same button.
Reference
- Where
- Home, pick a room, its Agents tab. Tap a card for the chat; tap the name or face in the chat header for the agent’s own screen.
- Name and picture
- Assigned from a pool of human names, skipping names you already use. Not chosen or changed by you.
- Default model
opusfor Claude Code,gpt-6-solfor Codex, both at effort high.- How many
- Up to twenty in a workplace, counted across every member and room.
- Default machine
- 2 dedicated cores and 4 GB. Its owner can resize it from its screen.
- Sleep
- About three quiet minutes after the last turn. Wakes in seconds on a message.
- Context window
- The ring around the face, labelled “Context window N% full”. Amber from 67%, red from 90%. Only a fresh chat resets it.
- Recap
- One sentence, twelve words or so, rewritten after every turn. The “Recap from” row says when it was written.
- Manual
CLAUDE.mdorAGENTS.mdon the machine, maintained by the platform. Its row reads “v12 · up to date” or names the version arriving next turn.- Room briefing
- One per room, written only when you press Refresh there. Three to six bullets on that room’s last seven days, from your own conversations.