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Agents

Create an agent

Make a new agent from a template or from scratch: name, provider, model, your provider key and a system prompt.

Guide2 min readUpdated 23 October 2026

An agent is a system prompt plus a model, running on your own provider key. Once it exists you can give it knowledge and tools, test it, and call it from the API, the widget or a workflow. There is no limit on how many agents an account can have.

Before you start

  • A key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or Groq, or one you've already saved on the LLM keys page. An agent can't answer without one.
  • A rough idea of what the agent is for and who it talks to.

Steps

  1. 1

    Open New agent

    In the sidebar, open Agents and choose New agent.

  2. 2

    Pick a starting point

    Under Start from, choose Custom for a blank agent or one of the 15 templates: Website Chatbot, Organisation Knowledge, Order Status, Product Discovery, Customer Support, IT Helpdesk, HR & Leave, Health Policy, Employee Onboarding, Compliance & Legal, Finance & Expense, Training & Development, Internal Workflows, BI Reporting or Recommendations. A template fills in the name, description and system prompt; you can change all three.

  3. 3

    Fill in the basics

    Name is required (up to 120 characters, and it must be unique in your account); it's shown in the agent list, chats and analytics. Description is optional, one line on what the agent is for.

  4. 4

    Choose the model

    Under Model, pick a provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or Groq) and a model from the list. Paste your provider key, or pick a saved key. The default is OpenAI gpt-5.5. See Choosing a model.

  5. 5

    Write the instructions

    Under Instructions, write the System prompt: who the agent is, what it should and shouldn't do, and how to answer. Up to 100,000 characters. See Write a system prompt.

  6. 6

    Create it

    Select Create agent. The agent opens on its own page with the Settings, Prompt, Knowledge, Tools, Deploy, Conversations, Versions and Cost tabs. New agents are Active and limited to 60 requests a minute.

You're done when

The agent appears in your agent list and answers a test message in the Playground.

Next

If something goes wrong

It says "Paste an API key or pick a saved one"

Every agent needs a provider key. SentientOne doesn't supply model access. Paste a key from your provider's console or save one on the LLM keys page first.

It says the name is taken

Agent names are unique within your account. Pick another name or rename the existing agent.

I don't see Mistral, DeepSeek or another provider

Agents can use OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or Groq. See Supported models.

Related

Still stuck?

Email us with what you tried and any request id. A person replies.

support@sentientone.ai