Single assistant and ensembles
Choose how many conversational agents you want to manage. This is a setting for your account; other users can choose differently.
| Setup | How you use it |
|---|---|
| Single assistant | One primary assistant uses your enabled skills and keeps one conversational identity |
| Agent ensemble | Separate specialists have their own roles and histories; a coordinator can delegate between them |
Defaults
New accounts start in Single assistant mode. Their first successfully created assistant becomes the primary assistant. Existing accounts keep their ensemble setup when upgrading.
Change your setup
- Finish or stop any active reply.
- Open Settings → Agents → Agent setup.
- Choose Single assistant or Agent ensemble.
- For Single assistant, choose the Primary assistant.
- Send your next message; the new setup applies to it.
You can also ask in chat: “Switch me to single-assistant mode,” “Use Avery as my primary assistant,” or “Switch me back to my agent ensemble.” If the primary is ambiguous, OE asks you to choose. A parent or administrator manages this setting for a child account.
To create a second agent, switch to Agent ensemble first. A one-agent ensemble can add agents; a Single assistant account keeps one active primary.
What stays saved
Switching to Single assistant parks the other agents. Their personas, role assignments, layouts, and histories remain stored and return when you switch back. Their private histories are not merged into the primary’s history. Shared account preferences remain available. Tasks assigned to parked agents remain saved and are shown as parked.
Deleting an agent is different from switching modes. Deleting the primary returns the account to ensemble mode; deletion is blocked while it has active work. See Agents.
Background work
Ask explicitly for background work when you want a detached worker. Ask for multiple agents or parallel work when you want a team. The primary remains the conversational identity in Single assistant mode; it cannot delegate to named, parked specialists.
Private workers use the account’s permitted tools and relevant task context. They do not receive another agent’s private conversation history or permission to change account setup. Ask “check workers” or “stop worker” to inspect or cancel them. See The Coordinator and Resumable agent jobs for recovery limits.
Check that it worked
In Settings, confirm the selected mode and primary. Send a short message to confirm which assistant answers. Switch back to ensemble when you want to return to a parked specialist’s own conversation.