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Creating agents

Creating an agent takes minutes. Write what you want in plain English, configure when it should run, and you're done.

Step-by-step setup

1

Name your agent

Give your agent a clear, descriptive name. This appears in the agent list and in run history, so make it recognizable — e.g., "Weekly Engineering Digest" or "PR Review Bot".

2

Configure triggers

Choose when the agent runs. Set a recurring schedule, listen for @Stilla mentions in specific channels, or run manually. You can have multiple triggers, and combine them freely. See Triggers.

3

Write instructions

Describe what the agent should do in its prompt. Be specific about what data to gather, what output to produce, what format to use, what actions to take, and any constraints. The prompt is plain markdown — write it like you're giving instructions to a capable teammate.

Tag using @-tag in the instructions to target channels in Slack, teams in Linear, or repositories in Github that Stilla should read, or post to when running.

4

Set restrictions (optional)

Control what the agent can access and modify. See Agent Restrictions.

5

Test and enable

Run the agent manually to verify it works as expected. Review the agent run canvas to see what it did. Once you're satisfied, enable it.

Prompt best practices

  • Be specific about output: "Write a summary with bullet points grouped by team" beats "summarize what happened"
  • Name your integrations: "Search Linear for issues updated this week" tells the agent exactly where to look
  • Define success criteria: "Only include PRs that were merged, not opened or closed"
  • Handle edge cases: "If no updates are found, post a short message saying so"

Example: weekly summary agent

Collect all updates from the past week:
- Linear issues completed, started, or created
- GitHub PRs merged
- Significant Slack discussions in #engineering

Write a summary grouped by project. For each project, list:
- Completed work
- In-progress work
- Notable discussions or decisions

Post the summary to #engineering-updates on Slack.

Example: meeting follow-up agent

After each meeting:
1. Read the transcript and identify action items
2. Create a Linear issue for each action item, assigned to the person mentioned
3. Post a summary of created issues to me in a DM
4. If no action items were found, reply confirming the meeting had no follow-ups

Turn on, and off

Toggle agents on and off without deleting them. Disabled agents retain their configuration and run history, so you can re-enable them anytime.