Configuring your first agent

Keep the first role small

A first agent should do one kind of work well. Good first roles:

• code helper
• research assistant
• content drafter

Bad first roles:

• “general operator”
• “everything agent”
• “full company replacement”

Pick one adapter on purpose

Choose the adapter that matches the work:

• coding: strong code model
• writing: strong long-form model
• research: model with good search or retrieval flow

Do not optimize for optionality on day one.

Set a low budget

Low budgets create useful pressure. If the agent needs more budget to do a real task, you will know quickly.

Example

# Repo Helper

adapter: codex
role: repository engineer
reports_to: board
budget: $15/month

This is enough to learn whether the loop works.