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The Instructions tab is the first tab in the Agent Builder. It’s always pinned and is the minimum viable configuration — every other tab is optional. Instructions tab for the Sales Assistant agent showing Agent Name (Sales Assistant), Agent Instructions expanded with a filled system prompt, and collapsed Agent Icon / Agent Description / Model / Prompt Bubbles sections. All six builder tabs are pinned at the top (Instructions, Tools, Resources, Channel, Monitor, Advanced). Each field is a collapsible section. Click a section header to expand or collapse it.

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Agent Name

Required. The display name users see in Coworker, in the @-mention picker, and in every chat transcript.
  • Placeholder: My Agent
  • Keep it short and human — “Sales Assistant”, not “Sales_Assistant_v2_final”.
The name is also used by the builder to compute the small two-letter avatar circle in the preview pane (e.g. SA for Sales Assistant).

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Agent Instructions

Required. The system prompt that defines how the agent behaves — role, scope, rules, tone, tools it should prefer, and any do-not-do guardrails. The placeholder offers a starter template along the lines of:
Role / What You Do / Rules — You are an AI assistant specialized in [insert domain or function, e.g. IT service management, HR onboarding, customer support]…
Tips that tend to produce better agents:
  • Lead with role and scope. One clear sentence that tells the model who it is and what problem it owns.
  • List rules as bullet points. Models follow crisp constraints better than paragraph prose.
  • Describe the tools it has. If you’ve attached Slack, Gmail, and a knowledge base, name them — the model decides which one to reach for faster.
  • Say what to refuse. Explicit “when asked about X, politely redirect” rules stop off-scope conversations.
There is no hard character limit, but extremely long prompts consume context on every turn, which can slow responses and raise token usage.

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Agent Icon

Optional. A single-character / emoji / image icon shown next to the agent in lists and preview avatars. Click the section to open the icon picker.

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Agent Description

Optional but recommended. A short, user-facing summary of the agent.
  • Placeholder: Describe what this agent does and its main purpose
  • Shown in the My Agents list and in the preview pane header.
Users discover agents in Coworker by reading descriptions, so write for that audience — “Helps with CRM updates, pipeline reviews, and drafting outreach emails” is more useful than “Sales agent”.

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Model

Required — but defaulted. The model that runs every turn of this agent’s conversations. Model dropdown expanded showing a list of models grouped by provider — Claude (Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.5 selected as default, Opus Low / Med / High), Inception (Mercury 2), and OpenAI (GPT-5.4, GPT-5 Mini, ...) Models are grouped by provider. The exact labels available depend on what your organization has enabled, but typically you’ll see:
  • Claude — Haiku 4.5 (fast, low-friction), Sonnet 4.5 (balanced, the default), Opus Low / Med / High (most intelligent; Low / Med / High controls thinking effort).
  • Inception — Mercury 2 (ultra-fast diffusion model; good for narrow code tasks).
  • OpenAI — GPT-5.4, GPT-5 Mini, GPT-5 Nano.
  • Groq — hosted open-weights models (e.g. GPT-OSS-120B, GPT-OSS-20B).
  • Fireworks — hosted open-weights models (e.g. Kimi-K2p5).
Each row in the dropdown shows a short description next to the label (“fast, low-cost”, “balanced speed and intelligence (default)”, etc.).
Changing the model does not auto-tune the system prompt. A prompt that works great on Sonnet may behave differently on Haiku or a non-Claude model. Always re-test in the preview after switching.

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Prompt Bubbles

Optional. One-click conversation starters shown in the preview pane and in Coworker when your agent is selected.
  • Placeholder: Example 1 / Example 2 / Example 3
  • One starter per line in the textarea.
  • Keep them short — they render as small rounded buttons.
A good set has three to six varied starters that cover common first-asks. For a sales agent, that might be: 
Summarize this week's pipeline changes
Draft a follow-up email for the Acme meeting
What deals are stalled for more than 14 days?
Up to six buttons are shown on channels that display them.

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Required vs optional

FieldRequiredUsed for
Agent NameYesDisplay everywhere
Agent InstructionsYesSystem prompt on every turn
ModelYes (defaulted)Which LLM runs the agent
Agent IconNoVisual identity
Agent DescriptionNoDiscovery copy in lists / Coworker
Prompt BubblesNoQuick-start buttons
You can save and release an agent with only Name + Instructions filled, but for anything user-facing, fill Description and Prompt Bubbles too.