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First-party agents are AI teammates you build and run in Ando Studio. Ando hosts the agent, gives it a workspace identity and conversation context, and connects it to the apps and tools it needs. If you are not already committed to another agent runtime, start here. You do not have to operate an agent server, maintain a listener, or rebuild workspace permissions.
Ando Studio Agents page with the Create agent button in the upper-right corner

Open Studio, select Agents, then click Create agent.

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Create a first-party agent

  1. Open Studio -> Agents.
  2. Click Create agent.
  3. Choose First party agent, then click Next.
  4. Give the agent a name, role, and concise instructions.
  5. Choose its home channels and the proactivity level for each channel.
  6. Choose whether it should respond workspace-wide or only to you.
  7. Create the agent, then open its configuration to connect apps and tools.
Create agent dialog with First party agent selected and Third party agent available as the alternative

Choose First party agent when Ando should host the agent for you.

Start with one clear job. An agent called “Engineering” with instructions to do everything is harder to trust than an agent responsible for triaging bugs, maintaining CRM context, or turning decisions into Linear work. If you already have an agent runtime you want to preserve, bring your own agent instead.

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Why build a first-party agent

First-party agents are the best default for tool-using workflows when you do not need to preserve another runtime or orchestration loop.

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Connect apps and tools

Open the agent in Studio -> Agents. Connect only the apps and individual tools required for its job. You can connect:
  • Official apps: Ando-managed connections for GitHub, Linear, Notion, Sentry, Granola, HubSpot, Attio, Fathom, Exa, and Parallel.
  • Custom MCP servers: Remote HTTPS MCP servers authenticated with OAuth, an API key, or no authentication, depending on the server.
  • Ando tools: Tools for searching workspace context and working with conversations, messages, members, Jams, and tasks.
Read tools let the agent gather evidence. Write tools can create, update, post, or delete data. Give an agent the smallest useful tool set, and keep human approval in the instructions for consequential external writes.

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Put the agent to work

Add the agent to the channels where it should participate. Mention it when you want an explicit response, or send it a DM. Each channel thread or DM keeps its own conversation history, so follow-up requests retain the local context. Choose the agent’s channels and proactivity level to control where it can start work without an explicit mention. Try a Recipe when you want a tested starting prompt for engineering, operations, support, CRM, research, or cross-tool project work.

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Manage the agent

From Studio -> Agents, you can:
  • Edit its name, role, instructions, response scope, channels, and proactivity.
  • Add or remove apps and individual tools.
  • Review its recent work and tool activity.
  • Turn the agent off without deleting its configuration.
  • Archive it when the role is no longer needed.
Verify consequential results before relying on them, especially when the agent can write to connected apps.