Agents
Understand Salt Agent, custom agents, and the settings that shape custom-agent behavior in Ask Salt.
Ask Salt gives you two ways to work through conversation: the built-in Salt Agent and custom agents that you configure for focused work. Both run in Ask Salt, while custom agents add their own behavior, model, tools, and sources.
Salt Agent and custom agents
- Salt Agent is built into Salt and is the default agent in Ask Salt. Salt manages its model, instructions, and capabilities, so you use it without creating or publishing it.
- A custom agent has its own name, description, Behavior, Model, Tools, and Connections. Saving it publishes a version that can run in Ask Salt.
Use Salt Agent for broad work across the platform. Create a custom agent when a repeatable job needs focused instructions, a specific model, selected sources, or a Pipeline it can call during conversation.
What you configure
The custom-agent editor groups configuration into these concepts:
- Name and description -- identify the custom agent and summarize what it does in Custom agents.
- Behavior -- instructions that tell the custom agent how to respond and orchestrate.
- Model -- the supported model the custom agent uses, with additional model controls under Advanced.
- Tools & Sources -- the built-in tools, published Agentic Tools, live Connections, and knowledge bases available to the custom agent. New custom agents start with Web Search enabled.
In the custom-agent editor, Connections are data sources. On a Pipeline canvas, Edges connect node Handles; they are a separate concept.
How Agentic Tools fit
An Agentic Tool is a Pipeline published for agents to call during conversation. Publishing a Pipeline does not attach it to a custom agent automatically.
In Tools & Sources, published Agentic Tools appear in Add tools with a Pipeline badge. After you attach one and save the custom agent, the custom agent can call that published Pipeline from Ask Salt.