Agent Builder is in beta. Some features are still in development and are subject to change.

When you create an agent with Agent Builder, you can use the demo agent as a starting point. This guide walks through the architecture of the demo agent and shows you how to modify it to add new behavior.

The demo agent is a sample retail use case. It takes a customer review and uses a series of tools to analyze the review and draft a response to the customer.

In this guide, you will:

  • Create a new Agent Builder project
  • Tour the demo agent architecture
  • Modify the demo agent to add new behavior

If you are unfamiliar with Agent Builder, review the Agent Builder Overview to learn more about the different components of an agent.

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Start an Agent Builder project

To create an agent with Agent Builder, log in to AI Studio and follow these steps:

1

Click the Build an agent button

Click the Build an agent button in the top right of the page.

2

Select Agent Builder

Next, in the modal that appears, select Get started under Agent Builder.

3

Edit the new agent

Writer creates a new agent for you asynchronously. Once the agent is created, you’ll see a message that the agent is ready with a link to the Agent Builder interface. Follow the Start editing link to start building your agent.

4

Return to the Agent Builder interface

You can get to the Agent Builder interface any time by going to the AI Studio homepage and selecting the agent you created.

You’ll see the Configure Deployment page when you select the agent. To get to the edit interface, click the Edit button in the top right corner.

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Preview the demo agent

Writer initializes the new agent with a demo workflow that you can use to get started. The demo agent takes a customer review and uses a series of tools to analyze the review and draft a response to the customer.

The Agent Builder contains three views: Preview, Blueprint, and UI. You can switch between views by clicking the tabs at the top of the page.

Before you start editing, preview the agent to see how it works:

1

Click the Preview tab

Click the Preview tab to see the agent in action.

2

Copy and paste the example customer review

Copy the example customer review under 1. Copy me and paste it into the input field.

3

Click Generate response

Click Generate response. You’ll see a status message in the UI that the agent is generating a response. Once the agent has finished, you’ll see the response in the UI.

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Tour of the demo agent architecture

The demo agent consists of a UI and a blueprint. The UI and the blueprint are connected through the agent’s state and UI triggers.

  • UI: Displays a welcome message and a text input for the customer review. It also contains a button to Generate response and a section to display the agent’s response along with a status message while the agent is generating a response.
  • Blueprint: A flowchart-like interface where you connect blocks of logic with transitions from one block to the next based on different conditions or states. The demo agent’s blueprint determines the main topic of the customer’s review and generates a customized response based on the classification. It then displays the response in the UI.
  • Agent state: A set of values that’s shared between the UI and the blueprint. Both the UI and the blueprint can reference and update the state.
  • UI trigger: A trigger from the UI that starts the agent’s blueprint. In this case, the UI trigger is attached to click events on the Generate response button.

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Agent state

The agent’s state is a core component of the agent’s behavior. It contains values that the UI and blueprint can access and update.

You can view the agent’s state from any view by clicking the State explorer icon in the top right of the page.

The section Connecting the UI and the blueprint describes how the UI and blueprint interact with the state to perform the agent’s tasks.

Learn more about the agent’s state in Agent state.

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Blueprint view

The Blueprint view is where you define the agent’s logic and behavior. It’s a flowchart-like interface where you connect blocks of logic with transitions from one block to the next based on different conditions or states.

If you have just previewed the agent, you’ll see green boxes highlighting the path that the agent took through the blueprint. The agent took the following steps:

1

UI Trigger

The blueprint started with the UI Trigger element. In this case, the UI Trigger is configured to run when the user clicks the Generate response button in the UI.

2

Set state to show the progress message

The agent used the Set state block to set the progress_message value for the agent state to show that it is generating a response.

3

Classification

The agent uses the Classification block to analyze the review to determine the primary focus of the review, from the following: Packaging, Pricing, Quality, Delivery, or Empty.

The agent determined the review fit into the Quality category. Classification blocks are built-in blocks that use a Palmyra model to classify the input based on a set of user-defined categories.

4

Text generation

The agent used the Text generation block to have a Palmyra model draft a response to the customer specifically focused on quality.

5

Set state for the response

The agent stored the drafted response in the agent’s state so it could use it in the UI.

6

Set state to clear the progress message

The agent cleared the progress_message value in the state to remove the loading message from the UI.

To view another path through the blueprint, go back to the Preview view and paste the following:

I like the style but it's a lot more expensive than other brands without any difference in quality.

Click Generate response, and navigate back to the Blueprint view. You’ll see that the agent took a different path through the blueprint, this time selecting the Pricing category and drafting a response using a pricing-related prompt.

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UI view

The UI view is where you define the agent’s appearance. You build the UI with components that you can customize and reference in the blueprint.

This agent’s UI has a welcome image and two sections, one for the review and one for the response.

The Review section has a Textarea input for the customer review and a button to Generate response.

The Response section has a Message component to display the in progress status message. It also contains two sections with Text components. One of the sections is visible when you first load the agent and says “The response will be shown here”. The second one is hidden until the response is generated.

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Hidden sections

You won’t see the hidden section for the results in the UI when you first load the agent. You can see that the section is in the UI from the Component tree in the bottom left of the page. The hidden section has an icon next to it indicating that it’s not visible.

Click that element in the Component tree to see its settings. Under Visibility, it’s set to only show up once there is a value in the review_response state variable.

The visible section within the Response area has the reverse condition set for visibility: it disappears when there is a value in the review_response variable.

The next section contains more information about state variables and how the UI and blueprint connect.

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Connecting the UI and the blueprint

To build full-featured agents, you must be able to connect the UI to the blueprint.

The agent’s state is the main way to pass data between the UI and the blueprint. The state contains a set of values that the UI and blueprint can both reference and set. You can also use triggers to connect the UI to the blueprint.

Here are the places where the demo agent connects the UI to the blueprint and passes data between them:

1

UI Trigger

The Generate response button in the UI is connected to the UI Trigger element in the blueprint. Click events trigger the blueprint to run.

2

Customer review input

The Textarea input component in the UI binds the user’s input to the customer_review state variable. The blueprint uses this value in the Classification block.

3

Progress message

The Message component in the UI displays the value of the progress_message state variable to the user. The blueprint sets this value after the user clicks Generate response.

4

Review response

The two sections in the response with Text components in the UI depend on the value of the review_response state variable.

  1. The blueprint sets this value after the Text generation block runs.
  2. Once review_response contains a value, the section that had the message “The response will be shown here” disappears.
  3. The section that displays the response appears. The text area in that section contains the value of review_response.

See Hidden sections for more information about the review response sections and conditionally showing and hiding them.

5

Clear progress message

Once the review response is generated, the final Set state block in the blueprint sets the progress_message state variable to an empty string to clear the loading message from the UI.

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Modify the demo agent

Now that you’ve toured the Agent Builder interface, try editing the agent’s behavior.

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Add a new category to the classification block

This example shows how to add a new category to the classification block to look for and respond to reviews that focus on sizing issues.

First, add another category to the Classification block in the blueprint so that the agent can also classify reviews that are about sizing.

From the blueprint view:

1

Open the Classification block

Click the Classification block in the blueprint to open the block settings.

2

Add a new category

In the Categories section, add a new category called Sizing with the value The review relates to sizing issues. Click +Add.

3

Add a new text generation block

Add a new Text generation block to the blueprint to generate a response to sizing-related reviews:

  1. Click one of the existing Text generation blocks in the blueprint.
  2. Type Command + c (on Mac) or Ctrl + c (on Windows) to copy the block.
  3. Click onto the blueprint canvas and type Command + v (on Mac) or Ctrl + v (on Windows) to paste the block.
4

Remove the transition

If you copied and pasted a text generation block, you might need to remove the new block’s transition to the next block that the original block was connected to. To do this, click the transition line you want to delete and press the X button.

5

Edit the new text generation block

Click on the new text generation block you added to edit it. The prompt should be to generate a response that focuses on sizing issues.

The name of the block should be Draft sizing response and the prompt should be:

Take the role of a customer success rep and draft a response to the customer review below that mentions sizing: @{customer_review}

The response should be short, positive and helpful in style.
6

Connect the new text generation block

Drag a line from the purple dot next to Sizing on the Classification block to connect it to the new Text generation block.

It should now look like this:

7

Copy and paste the two Set state blocks

Copy and paste the two Set state blocks that followed the original Text generation block.

Update the transitions from those blocks to connect to the new Text generation block for sizing. The final flow for the sizing response should look like this:

Now, preview the agent to see the new behavior. Paste the following review into the input field and click Generate response:

I ordered a size 10 dress but it fits like a size 8.

You should see the agent take a different path through the blueprint and generate a sizing-related response.

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Add a new UI component

This next example shows how to add a new UI component that you can incorporate into the agent’s blueprint.

The steps show how to prompt the agent to add a discount of a certain percentage when generating a response to the customer review. You will:

  • Add a Dropdown input component to the UI that lists different discount percentages
  • Edit the prompt for one of the Text generation blocks to add the selected discount percentage to the response if there is one

From the UI view:

1

Add a new Dropdown input component

Add a new Dropdown input component to the UI. In the component’s settings, set the label to Discount percent.

2

Add the following keys with the same number as the values

Add the following keys with the same number as the values: 0, 5, 10, 15. Delete the default keys Option A and Option B.

3

Bind the dropdown to the discount state variable

Under Binding in the component’s settings, type discount into the State element field.

4

Move the component up above the Generate response button

Move the component above the Generate response button by clicking the up arrow icon in the component’s settings.

The UI should now look like this:

From the blueprint view:

1

Click on the Draft packaging response text generation block

Click on the Draft packaging response text generation block to open its settings.

2

Edit the prompt to read the discount state variable

Edit the prompt to read the discount state variable and add a discount to the response if there is one. For example, add the following to the prompt: Offer a discount of @{discount} percent on their next purchase. Do not offer a discount if the value of @{discount} is 0.

Now, preview the agent to see the new behavior. Paste the following review into the input field:

The packaging was awful.

Then, select a discount amount from the dropdown and click Generate response.

You should see the agent take a different path through the blueprint and generate a response that offers a discount if you set it above 0.

You can update the prompts for the other text generation blocks to have the agent offer a discount for the other categories.

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Next steps

Now that you’ve interacted with and modified an agent in Agent Builder, you can build your own. Check out the Agent Builder Quickstart to learn how to build a new agent from scratch.