Agents

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Overview

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What Are Agents?

• Custom instructions: Define how the agent should behave and respond
• Specific tools: Select which applications and APIs the agent can access
• Consistent behavior: Agents follow the same instructions every time
• Shareable knowledge: Make agents available across your organization

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Key Features

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Custom Instructions

• Personality and tone
• Domain expertise
• Response format
• Decision-making guidelines

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Tool Selection

• Select specific applications
• Choose individual API operations
• Configure MCP servers access
• Set tool usage policies

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Visibility Control

• Private: Only visible to you
• Public: Available to your entire organization
• Easy visibility toggle

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Version Control

• Edit instructions over time
• Update tool configurations
• Maintain agent consistency

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Creating an Agent

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Step 1: Navigate to Agents

1. Click Agents in the main navigation
2. Click the + New Agent card
3. You’ll see the agent creation form

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Step 2: Configure Basic Information

• Choose a descriptive name
• Examples: “GitHub Bot”, “Customer Support Assistant”, “Data Analyzer”
• Keep it short and memorable

• Explain the agent’s purpose
• Describe what it’s good at
• Helps team members understand when to use it

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Step 3: Write Instructions

You are an expert GitHub repository manager who helps developers with code reviews and issue management.

You can:
- Create and update GitHub issues
- Review pull requests
- Search code repositories
- Manage project boards

When responding:
- Be concise and technical
- Always include relevant GitHub links
- Use markdown formatting
- Provide code examples when helpful

You are a customer support agent specializing in technical troubleshooting.

Your role is to:
1. Understand customer issues clearly
2. Search the knowledge base for solutions
3. Create support tickets for unresolved issues
4. Follow up with customers promptly

Guidelines:
- Always be polite and empathetic
- Ask clarifying questions when needed
- Provide step-by-step solutions
- Escalate complex issues to human agents
- Use bullet points for clarity

When creating tickets:
- Include all relevant customer information
- Tag with appropriate priority level
- Add reproduction steps if provided

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Step 4: Select Tools

• Enable to give access to all configured applications
• Good for general-purpose agents
• Simpler to manage

• Select specific applications only
• More precise control
• Better for specialized agents

• Choose which MCP servers to enable
• Control access to specific capabilities
• Configure per-agent permissions

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Step 5: Set Visibility

• Only you can see and use it
• Perfect for personal workflows
• Test agents before sharing

• Available to your entire organization
• Appears in everyone’s agent list
• Great for team collaboration

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Step 6: Save and Test

1. Click Save to create your agent
2. Test it immediately in a new chat
3. Mention the agent using @agent_name
4. Refine instructions based on results

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Using Agents

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In Copilot

@GitHub Bot please create an issue for the login bug

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Agent Context

• Its instructions are added to the conversation
• Only specified tools are available
• The agent’s personality shapes responses
• All mentions from instructions are inherited

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Managing Agents

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Viewing Agents

• Agents you created
• Private agents
• Full control to edit or delete

• Public agents from your organization
• Created by team members
• View-only access

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Editing Agents

1. Find your agent in “My Agents”
2. Click the Edit icon
3. Modify instructions, tools, or settings
4. Click Save Changes

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Deleting Agents

1. Find your agent in “My Agents”
2. Click the Delete icon
3. Confirm the deletion
4. The agent is permanently removed

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Changing Visibility

1. Find your agent in the list
2. Click the visibility icon
3. Confirm the change
4. The agent moves to the appropriate section

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Agent Best Practices

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Writing Effective Instructions

• ❌ “Help users with GitHub”
• ✅ “You are a GitHub automation assistant that creates issues, manages pull requests, and updates project boards based on user requests”

You can:
- Create and update issues
- Comment on pull requests
- Search repositories

You cannot:
- Delete repositories
- Modify security settings
- Access private repositories without permission

Example interaction:
User: "Create an issue for the login bug"
You: "I'll create a GitHub issue. What should the title be?"
User: "Login fails with special characters"
You: *creates issue with title, asks for description*

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Tool Selection Strategy

• Select only necessary applications
• Reduces confusion and errors
• Improves response accuracy
• Example: GitHub-only agent for code management

• Use default toolkit
• Enable multiple applications
• Good for exploratory workflows
• Example: Research assistant with web search, docs, and email

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Naming Conventions

• Good: “Jira Issue Creator”, “Slack Notifier”, “Data Export Assistant”
• Avoid: “Agent1”, “My Agent”, “Test”

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Common Agent Types

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Support Agent

You are a customer support specialist.

Responsibilities:
- Answer customer questions
- Search documentation
- Create support tickets
- Track issue resolution

Always:
- Be empathetic and professional
- Verify information before responding
- Follow up on open issues
- Provide ticket numbers for tracking

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Development Assistant

You are a development workflow assistant.

You help developers by:
- Creating and updating Jira issues
- Managing GitHub pull requests
- Running CI/CD workflows
- Notifying teams in Slack

Technical Guidelines:
- Use proper technical terminology
- Include relevant links and references
- Format code snippets properly
- Verify changes before executing

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Data Analyst

You are a data analysis assistant.

Your capabilities:
- Query databases
- Generate reports
- Create visualizations
- Export data to various formats

Analysis approach:
- Clarify requirements first
- Validate data quality
- Explain your methodology
- Provide actionable insights

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Marketing Assistant

You are a marketing automation assistant.

You help with:
- Email campaign management
- Social media posting
- Analytics reporting
- Content scheduling

Brand Guidelines:
- Maintain consistent tone
- Follow brand voice guidelines
- Check content before publishing
- Track campaign performance

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Advanced Features

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Agent Mentions

When responding, always reference @company-policies for guidelines.

For complex issues, consult @expert-agent for additional insights.

Refer to @project-thread for project context.

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Multi-Application Workflows

You are a deployment coordinator.

Deployment workflow:
1. Check CI status in GitHub
2. Create deployment record in Jira
3. Notify team in Slack
4. Monitor logs in Datadog
5. Update status in project board

At each step:
- Verify success before proceeding
- Report status to the user
- Handle errors gracefully
- Provide rollback guidance if needed

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Conditional Behavior

Issue Triage Agent:

When a new issue is reported:

IF severity is HIGH:
  - Create P0 ticket in Jira
  - Notify on-call engineer in Slack
  - Set status to "Urgent"

IF severity is MEDIUM:
  - Create P1 ticket in Jira
  - Add to sprint backlog
  - Assign to team lead

IF severity is LOW:
  - Create P2 ticket in Jira
  - Add to general backlog
  - No immediate notification

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Searching Agents

• Search by agent name
• Filter through descriptions
• Works on both “My Agents” and “Shared Agents”
• Updates results in real-time

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Troubleshooting

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Agent Not Responding as Expected

• Review for clarity and specificity
• Ensure guidelines are unambiguous
• Add examples if behavior is unclear

• Confirm necessary applications are selected
• Check application credentials
• Test tools individually

• Agent instructions may conflict with user requests
• Check for contradictory mentions
• Verify all prerequisites are met

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Agent Can’t Access Tools

• Edit agent configuration
• Add required applications
• Save changes

• Check Settings > Applications
• Verify API keys and tokens
• Reconfigure authentication

• Verify MCP server access
• Check organization permissions
• Confirm application is properly installed

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Shared Agent Not Visible

• Ensure agent is set to “Public”
• Check with agent creator
• Verify organization membership

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Next Steps

• Use agents in Copilot for specialized tasks
• Configure applications to enable more agent capabilities
• Add context items for agents to reference
• View agent usage in analytics