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#Start an agent

An agent is started by a person in a chat in the Execution app, by a process through a call activity, or by an incoming message — every one of them runs its production deployment.

#Three ways in

flowchart LR
  C["A person<br/>chat in Execution"] --> A["Agent<br/>production deployment"]
  P["A process<br/>call activity → a task"] --> A
  M["An external system<br/>message start → a task"] --> A
  A --> R1["Answer in the chat"]
  A --> R2["Result to the process"]
  A --> R3["Nobody waits"]

How the agent can be reached is its start paths, below the cards on its Configuration tab.

#Chat with it

A chat start path makes the agent available under Agents in the Execution app, and in the quick drawer in its top bar. People see an agent there when:

  • it has a production deployment;
  • that deployment has a chat start path;
  • the agent is in a catalog assigned to them.

A conversation belongs to the person who started it; nobody else can open it. The answer streams in as it is written, and a person can stop it — ⚠️ which only stops showing the answer; the agent may still be working. Up to five files of at most 10 MB each can be attached to a message — text, PDF, Office documents, images and code files; the agent can also hand them to its tools.

⚠️ The agent sees the last 60 messages of a conversation.

⚠️ A chat does not use a task: no task instruction, no tool restrictions, no defined response.

The Chat tab on the agent's page in the Designer is the same chat — it too needs a production deployment.

#Call it from a process

A call activity whose target is the agent runs one of its tasks and waits for the result. The process fills in the task's input fields; it receives the task's response fields — or, without them, the agent's text and the details of the run.

Without a chosen task, the first task is used.

#Start it with a message

A Message start event start path starts a task when an external system sends a request — like a message start event in a process. Choose the Task, the System, Adapter and Action, and optionally a Correlation Key and a Filter Expression.

Nobody waits for the result: the run's answer is only visible in monitoring.

⚠️ This start path has no environment choice, so an adapter that takes its host from an environment cannot be used here.

#Which deployment runs

Chat and call activities always run the agent's production deployment — also when the calling process itself runs as a development deployment. A development deployment of an agent is reached only through its message start path and by its own tasks.

See Deploy a process.