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Agent Creation

Summary​

This hands-on technical workshop will provide a clear, two-part tutorial for participants to build intelligent agents on the Ordify platform. Part I will focus on creating a foundational interactive agent using the automated Agent Builder. Part II will then introduce adding custom knowledge to agents to enhance an agent's capabilities with domain-specific information. As a look ahead, we will also demonstrate the advanced capability of setting up different agents to work collaboratively.

Ordify Agent Creation​

Today, you will learn how to build powerful agents in Ordify. We will start with a simple interactive agent and then level up by training your agent with custom knowledge.

An AI agent is a sophisticated system designed to perform a variety of tasks. It can answer questions using available information, conduct research, fact-check, summarize complex data, and process different types of information. Agents can also create content, write reports, draft communications, generate code, and, importantly, use tools and applications. Furthermore, they are equipped to solve problems by breaking them down, providing step-by-step solutions, troubleshooting errors, and adapting to changing requirements.

Setup​

Go to app.ordify.ai/signup and create your account.

Part I: Building Your First Interactive Agent​

Step 1: Your Agent's Identity (The Four Pillars)​

For an agent to be smart it needs an identity. You will define its "brain" and "personality" using four key components:

  • Goal: What is the agent's mission? (e.g., "Help people grow their careers.")
  • Instructions: How should it talk and behave? (e.g., "Be friendly and give practical advice.")
  • Backstory: Its role or background. (e.g., "A supportive career and learning advisor.")
  • Description: A quick summary of its capabilities.

Step 2: Automated Agent Builder​

Don't worry about filling out all four yourself! Ordify has a magic button, the Agent Builder, which generates most of this for you based on two questions.

  1. Open the Agent Builder: On Ordify’s chat page, click the + sign next to "Agents," then click the Agent Builder button.

  2. Answer Question 1 (The Mission):

    • Prompt: "What problem should this agent solve, and what should happen when it succeeds?"
    • Your Task: Define the desired problem and a clear, successful outcome.
    • Result: This answer automatically creates your agent's Goal.

  3. Answer Question 2 (The Personality):

    • Prompt: "What role should this agent have, and what instructions or guidelines should it follow in its behavior?"
    • Your Task: Describe its job (role) and the rules for its behavior.
    • Result: This creates the Role, Instructions, and Backstory.

Let’s say you are in the HR department of a large corporation and you have been tasked with helping a team of employees grow in their careers and develop a personalized career development plan for each individual employee. You can create a Career and Skill Advisor agent using the sample answers below. Feel free to add more details if you would like.

  • Question 1

    • Answer: Help people grow their careers or learn new skills. The agent succeeds when the user has clear goals and actions and feels confident about them.

  • Question 2

    • Answer: The agent should act as a supportive career and learning advisor. It should ask a few thoughtful clarifying questions before giving advice. Adapt answers based on the user's goals and develop an actionable career development plan tailored to that individual’s skill set and abilities. Be practical and offer actionable advice. Be friendly and encouraging.

Step 3: Review and Launch​

  1. Click Generate Agent.
  2. Review and Edit: Navigate to the different tabs (Goal, Instructions, etc.). This is your chance to fine-tune the generated text!
  3. Customize: You can edit the name of your agent (you can make it shorter for brevity or name it anything you want). You can even upload an image to give your agent a face.
  4. Create: When everything looks perfect, click Create Agent.Voila! Your very own interactive agent is ready for action!

Step 4: Talk to Your Agent​

You can start chatting right away! There are a few ways to get to it:

  • Search: Find your agent using the search bar on the top left.

  • Tag: Type @ directly in the chat to tag and select your agent's name.

Demo video​

✨ Pro Tip: Ordify has many pre-built agents that you can use right away or customize to your needs. Check them out at the Library.

Part II: Adding External Knowledge To Your Agent​

Imagine you have a proprietary company handbook. This is information the public internet doesn't have. This is where Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) comes in (learn more about it here). Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is a powerful way to leverage private knowledge, such as your proprietary company documents. RAG allows you to infuse your agents with this domain-specific information so they understand your unique context and can truly do work that fits your specific processes.

For example, you can create an internal agent to quickly provide employees with information they need from a bulk of internal documents. You can also use RAG to ensure an agent produces content that is consistently on-brand and aligned with your company's writing style.

To demonstrate this concept, let's turn to the fictional Mossling. Have you heard about it? I hope not 🙂. This plant-animal hybrid pet was made up and has biology and care information that the internet doesn’t have. We will create an agent with access to this private data to help a user decide if the Mossling is an appropriate pet for them.

The Mossling

Follow the steps below:​

  1. Create a New Agent following the steps in Part I.

  2. Use the Agent Builder with these answers as a starting point (feel free to modify them as you would like):

    • Question 1 (Mission): "This agent will help the user decide if the Mossling, a plant-animal hybrid pet, is an appropriate pet for them. When it succeeds, the user should have a recommendation for being a good match or not for the Mossling."
    • Question 2 (Personality): "This agent has all the knowledge of the Mossling biology, behavior, and needs. It should use that to ask the user questions that will help decide if the Mossling is an appropriate pet. The agent must only answer based on the provided document. If the user is not a good fit, be kind and suggest a few other pet options tailored to the user’s responses."

  3. Download the Knowledge File: While the Agent Builder works, download the fictional Mossling guide.

  4. Upload the Knowledge:

    • After reviewing your agent's details, navigate to the Knowledge tab.
    • Click on + Upload to upload a document.
    • Select the Mossling file and click Upload. Wait a few seconds for the document to be processed.
    • You will see the document added to your agent's knowledge and automatically selected!

  5. Final Launch: Click Create Agent, and your Mossling expert agent is ready to quiz new owners!

✨ Pro Tip: You can manage and upload multiple documents, folders, and even crawl websites using the Document Library.

✨ Pro Tip: Your agent can connect to thousands of different applications! You can give them access to those applications on the Integrations tab.

Demo video​

Extra Time Challenge: The Dried-Out Mossling​

What happens to a Mossling when it doesn't get enough water? Find out, then use Ordify's tools to create an image of the dried-out Mossling and share it!
(Hint: Check the Tools button on the chat bar!)

Make your agents even more powerful​

Now that you have mastered building individual agents and infusing them with specialized knowledge, you are ready to unlock the true "superpower" of AI: multi-agent collaboration and tool integration.

Agents reach peak effectiveness when they function as a coordinated team where each member specializes in a unique role. By connecting these specialized agents to thousands of external applications—such as Slack, Gmail, and CRMs—you empower them to move beyond simple reasoning and take direct action within your digital ecosystem. This evolution transforms your agents from basic chat interfaces into an autonomous workforce, capable of automating entire workflows and solving sophisticated, multi-step problems.

In Ordify AI you can connnect your agents to thousands of apps and create jobs where the agents can work together to accomplish a goal. Soon you will have the ability to coordinate between jobs and agents in a single agent interface so stay tuned!

Learn more about Ordify AI​

Explore the app, documentation, and check out the video below: