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Building Your First AI Agent

This guide walks you through creating your first AI agent on the AgentArea platform. We’ll cover everything from basic setup to advanced agent behaviors.

🎯 What You’ll Learn

By the end of this guide, you’ll know how to:
  • Create and configure AI agents
  • Set up agent personalities and behaviors
  • Connect agents to external tools via MCP
  • Enable multi-agent communication
  • Deploy and monitor your agents

🏗️ Agent Architecture

Every AgentArea agent consists of several key components:
  • Core Identity
  • Knowledge Base
  • Capabilities
Name & Personality: Define who your agent is
{
  "name": "Customer Support Agent",
  "personality": "helpful, patient, professional",
  "role": "customer service representative"
}

🚀 Creating Your First Agent

1

Choose a Template

Start with one of our pre-built templates:

Chatbot

Simple conversational agent

Task Assistant

Agent that can perform specific tasks

Customer Support

Specialized for customer service

Data Analyst

Agent that can analyze and report on data
2

Configure Basic Settings

Set up your agent’s identity:
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/agents \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "My Assistant",
    "template": "task_assistant",
    "personality": "helpful and efficient",
    "system_prompt": "You are a helpful assistant that can help users with various tasks."
  }'
3

Add Knowledge Sources

Connect your agent to relevant information:
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/agents/{agent_id}/knowledge \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "sources": [
      {"type": "document", "path": "/docs/user_manual.pdf"},
      {"type": "url", "url": "https://api.example.com/docs"},
      {"type": "database", "connection": "postgres://..."}
    ]
  }'
4

Enable Tools & Integrations

Give your agent superpowers with MCP tools:
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/agents/{agent_id}/tools \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "mcp_tools": [
      {"name": "web_search", "enabled": true},
      {"name": "email_sender", "enabled": true, "config": {...}},
      {"name": "calendar_manager", "enabled": true}
    ]
  }'

🎨 Customizing Agent Behavior

Personality & Communication Style

Define how your agent communicates:
personality:
  tone: "friendly and professional"
  style: "concise but thorough"
  quirks: 
    - "Uses emojis sparingly"
    - "Always asks clarifying questions"
    - "Provides step-by-step guidance"

communication_rules:
  - "Always greet users warmly"
  - "Confirm understanding before taking action"
  - "Provide progress updates for long tasks"
  - "Escalate complex issues to human agents"

Knowledge Management

  • Static Knowledge
  • Dynamic Knowledge
  • Learning & Memory
Upload documents, FAQs, and manuals:
# Upload a PDF manual
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/agents/{agent_id}/knowledge/upload \
  -F "file=@user_manual.pdf" \
  -F "type=manual"

# Add FAQ entries
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/v1/agents/{agent_id}/knowledge/faq \
  -d '{"question": "How do I reset my password?", "answer": "..."}'

🔗 Multi-Agent Communication

Enable your agents to work together:

Agent-to-Agent Messaging

# Python SDK example
from agentarea import Agent, MessageType

# Create agents
support_agent = Agent("customer_support")
billing_agent = Agent("billing_specialist")

# Enable communication
support_agent.enable_communication([billing_agent.id])

# Send a message
support_agent.send_message(
    to_agent=billing_agent.id,
    message="Customer needs help with billing issue #12345",
    message_type=MessageType.TASK_REQUEST,
    context={"customer_id": "cust_123", "issue_id": "12345"}
)

Workflow Orchestration

workflows:
  customer_onboarding:
    trigger: "new_customer_signup"
    agents:
      - agent: "welcome_agent"
        task: "send_welcome_message"
        next: "setup_agent"
      
      - agent: "setup_agent" 
        task: "guide_initial_setup"
        conditions:
          - if: "setup_complete"
            next: "success_agent"
          - if: "needs_help"
            next: "support_agent"
      
      - agent: "support_agent"
        task: "provide_human_assistance"
        escalation: true

🛠️ Advanced Features

Custom Tool Development

Create your own MCP tools:
# tools/custom_crm.py
from mcp import MCPTool
import requests

class CRMTool(MCPTool):
    name = "crm_lookup"
    description = "Look up customer information in CRM"
    
    def execute(self, customer_id: str):
        response = requests.get(f"/api/customers/{customer_id}")
        return response.json()

# Register the tool
agent.register_tool(CRMTool())

Event-Driven Behavior

Respond to external events:
{
  "event_handlers": [
    {
      "event": "user_login",
      "action": "send_greeting",
      "conditions": ["first_login_today"]
    },
    {
      "event": "order_placed",
      "action": "send_confirmation",
      "delay": "2m"
    },
    {
      "event": "payment_failed",
      "action": "escalate_to_human",
      "urgency": "high"
    }
  ]
}

📊 Monitoring & Analytics

Track your agent’s performance:

Conversation Metrics

  • Response time
  • User satisfaction scores
  • Conversation completion rates
  • Escalation frequency

System Metrics

  • CPU and memory usage
  • API call latency
  • Tool execution success rates
  • Error rates and types

Dashboard Access

# View agent metrics
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/agents/{agent_id}/metrics

# Export conversation logs  
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/agents/{agent_id}/conversations/export

🚀 Deployment & Scaling

Development to Production

1

Test Locally

# Run agent in development mode
agentarea dev start --agent my_agent
2

Validate Configuration

# Validate agent configuration
agentarea validate --agent my_agent
3

Deploy to Staging

# Deploy to staging environment
agentarea deploy staging --agent my_agent
4

Production Deployment

# Deploy to production with scaling
agentarea deploy production --agent my_agent --replicas 3

💡 Best Practices

Agent Design Tips
  • Keep agent personalities consistent and clear
  • Provide comprehensive system prompts
  • Test with real user scenarios
  • Monitor and iterate based on feedback
Common Pitfalls
  • Don’t make agents too complex initially
  • Avoid overlapping agent responsibilities
  • Always handle error cases gracefully
  • Test multi-agent interactions thoroughly

🆘 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

📚 Next Steps


Need help? Join our Discord community or check out the API Reference for detailed technical documentation.
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