Background Agents
A background agent is an AI worker that runs without you. It has its own instructions, its own model, and its own files, and it keeps notes between runs so it can build up work over time.
Background agents are one half of Automation. Read that page first if you haven’t, because an agent on its own never runs.
Agents have no trigger
Section titled “Agents have no trigger”An agent doesn’t listen for anything. A reflex is what wakes it, and the reflex passes along whatever it decided the agent needs to know.
This means:
- An agent with no reflex pointed at it is dormant. That’s fine, and it’s how you’d park one you’re not using.
- Several reflexes can wake the same agent.
- A reflex with no agent is completely normal, and is the right shape for most automation.
What an agent has
Section titled “What an agent has”| Piece | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Instructions | What the agent is meant to do on each run, what to record, and when to contact you |
| Model | The AI model it runs on, which you can ask Alfred to change |
| Files | Its own workspace of Cards, including a notes file it carries between runs |
| Inbox | Notes it leaves for Alfred to bring up with you later |
An agent can be given access to tools and to cards outside its usual jurisdiction when Alfred decides it needs them to do its job.
Writing good instructions
Section titled “Writing good instructions”Agent instructions are the whole personality of the thing, so vague instructions produce vague runs. A good set of instructions says:
- What to look at on each run.
- What to write down, and where.
- When to contact you, and when to stay quiet.
That last one matters more than people expect. An agent that reports every run is an agent you’ll mute within a week.
Talking to your agents
Section titled “Talking to your agents”You can ask Alfred to list your agents, show what one has been doing, change its instructions, pause it, or delete it. Conversations between Alfred and his agents also show up in your history in the Dashboard, so you can read exactly what an agent did on a run instead of guessing.
Every agent run is a real AI run and it comes out of your usage allowance, same as a normal message. An agent woken every minute on a strong model will eat through allowance quickly.
If an agent is costing more than it’s worth, the usual fixes are to move the cheap parts of the job into the reflex, run it less often, or put it on a cheaper model. See Usage.