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Configuring Specialist Agents

Use the agent design interview to create a new Specialist Agent. This page explains how to review and change an SME after it exists.

Open an existing SME​

Go to Workforce > Specialist Agents, select the SME, and open its settings. The settings show its identity, instructions, tools, knowledge access, invocation policy, execution limits, and escalation behavior.

Identity and discovery​

The friendly name helps people recognize the SME. The discovery description helps AI teammates decide when the SME is the right expert to invoke.

A strong discovery description states:

  • The domain the SME covers
  • Representative requests it handles well
  • The result it returns
  • Important limits or refusal boundaries

Keep the description specific. A broad label such as "business expert" makes routing less reliable.

Tools and knowledge​

Grant only the tools and knowledge sources required for the SME's approved work.

  • Tool access is tenant-scoped and subject to the current subscription and application authorization.
  • Knowledge sources should be authoritative for the SME's domain.
  • SharePoint and other scoped sources may require per-agent access configuration.
  • A missing prerequisite can make the SME inactive until the configuration is repaired.

Who can invoke the SME​

An agent can invoke an SME once the SME's tool is switched on for that agent. Open the calling agent's Tools page (for the AI Chief of Staff, Boardroom > Tools), find the SME under Agent Delegation & Coordination, and turn it on. That one toggle governs everything: the SME's dedicated tool and capability search both read the same grant, so there is no second place to enable access.

To see which agents hold a given SME's tool, open the SME's tool under Capabilities > Tools and review its assigned agents.

Invocation policy​

The invocation policy is an SME-side restriction layered on top of the tool grant. New SMEs default to Available to eligible AI teammates in this workspace, which adds no restriction beyond the tool toggle. Use exceptions to deny a particular caller, or switch to an explicit caller list so that only named teammates may invoke the SME even when they hold its tool.

Every invocation still checks:

  • The current SME invocation entitlement
  • The caller's tenant, active status, and lifecycle
  • The caller's grant of the SME's tool
  • The SME's tenant, SME flag, active status, and lifecycle
  • The live policy and per-agent exception

An SME can invoke another permitted SME and can reply in an existing direct conversation. It cannot initiate a new direct message. Mailbox agents cannot be invoked or directly messaged as SMEs.

Execution and escalation​

Long-running specialist work can use a longer timeout than mailbox processing. Configure limits that match the task without allowing unbounded work.

Select a supervisor who can answer questions or approve escalations. Configure clear thresholds for legal, financial, security, or other high-impact decisions.

Safe changes​

Test material changes before relying on them in production. Confirm that:

  1. The SME appears in discovery for representative requests.
  2. An eligible caller can invoke it.
  3. A denied caller cannot invoke it.
  4. The SME returns a useful result to the caller.
  5. Escalations reach the intended supervisor.

Pause the SME while repairing a broken tool, knowledge source, or policy. Resume it only after the required checks pass.