← Back to Agent

Manager & Daily Catch-Up

Assign a supervisor for this agent and configure automated daily status briefings across email, WhatsApp, or Telegram.

Contents

Overview

For Everyone

Every agent can have a manager — someone it reports to. This can be another AI agent in your organization or a real person (via their email address). When a manager is assigned, the agent knows who to escalate issues to and who receives its daily status updates.

The Daily Catch-Up is an automated briefing the agent sends to its manager at a scheduled time each day. It covers what the agent accomplished, any issues it encountered, and upcoming tasks. Think of it as a morning standup, but your AI sends it automatically.

For Developers

The Manager & Daily Catch-Up section edits two top-level config keys on the agent:

For external managers, messaging platform identities (WhatsApp number, Telegram ID) are stored under config.messagingChannels.managerIdentity. This lets the agent recognize the manager across multiple communication channels with full trust.

Saves are sent via hot-update (POST /agents/:id/hot-update) if the agent is running, or via config patch (PATCH /agents/:id/config) if stopped. Legacy support maps config.managerId to the new config.manager.agentId format.

How It Works

  1. Open the Manager & Daily Catch-Up section on the agent detail page. You'll see the current manager assignment (or "No manager assigned") and the catch-up status.
  2. Click "Edit" to enter edit mode. A form appears with two cards: Manager and Daily Catch-Up.
  3. Choose a manager type:
  4. Configure Daily Catch-Up — toggle it on, set the time and timezone, and choose the delivery platform.
  5. Click "Save Changes" — the configuration is applied immediately if the agent is running (hot-update) or saved for next start.
Tip: Changes take effect immediately on running agents via hot-update. You don't need to restart the agent after saving.

Key Concepts

Manager Types

There are three options for the manager assignment:

No Manager

The agent operates independently. Escalations go to the system admin. Daily catch-ups have no recipient (a warning is shown if catch-up is enabled without a manager).

Internal Manager (Another Agent)

Another AI agent in your organization supervises this one. The supervisor agent receives escalations, status reports, and daily catch-ups. This creates a reporting hierarchy between agents — useful for multi-agent workflows where a coordinator agent oversees specialist agents.

The dropdown lists all agents in the organization except the current one (an agent cannot be its own manager). Each entry shows the agent's display name and role.

External Manager (Human)

A real person outside the system — identified by name and email address. The agent sends reports, catch-ups, and escalations to this person. Additional fields let you specify the manager's WhatsApp number and Telegram ID so the agent can recognize them across messaging platforms.

External Manager & Messaging Identity

When you choose an external manager, you can optionally provide:

These identities are stored under config.messagingChannels.managerIdentity and allow the agent to establish trust with the manager across platforms — the agent knows that messages from these accounts carry managerial authority.

Internal Manager

When selecting an internal manager, the agent's config.manager is set to:

{
  "type": "internal",
  "agentId": "selected-agent-id"
}

For backward compatibility, the legacy config.managerId field is also set. The resolveManager() function handles both formats, looking up the agent's display name from the full agent list.

Daily Catch-Up

The daily catch-up is an automated status briefing. When enabled, the agent sends a structured update to its manager covering:

Configuration fields:

Platform Selection

The available delivery platforms depend on your configuration:

Warning: If you select WhatsApp but haven't set the manager's WhatsApp number, or select Telegram without a Telegram ID, a warning message appears. The catch-up won't be deliverable until the identity is provided.

Timezone Handling

The system includes 30+ pre-configured IANA timezones covering major business centers worldwide. The catch-up is scheduled according to the selected timezone — if you set 09:00 in America/New_York, it fires at 9 AM Eastern regardless of where the server runs. The default timezone is America/New_York.

Best Practices

Start with Email

Email is the most reliable delivery platform and requires no additional setup. Start with email catch-ups, then add WhatsApp or Telegram once you've verified the agent's reporting is useful.

Match Timezone to the Manager

Set the catch-up timezone to the manager's local timezone, not the agent's server timezone. A catch-up arriving at 9 AM in the manager's morning is far more useful than one arriving at 3 AM.

Use Internal Managers for Multi-Agent Workflows

When running multiple agents, assign a coordinator agent as the manager for specialist agents. The coordinator receives all catch-ups and can synthesize a summary for the human owner — reducing notification fatigue.

Always Assign a Manager Before Enabling Catch-Up

A catch-up without a manager has no recipient. The dashboard warns you about this, but it's best to assign the manager first, then enable the catch-up.

Troubleshooting

Catch-up is enabled but nobody receives it

Check that a manager is assigned. If the manager type is "No manager," the catch-up has no recipient. Also verify the manager's email address is correct for external managers.

WhatsApp/Telegram delivery fails

Ensure the manager's messaging identity (phone number or Telegram ID) is set in the external manager configuration. Also check that the corresponding messaging channel is configured in the agent's Channels tab.

"Failed to save" error

If the agent is running, saves use hot-update. If the hot-update endpoint fails, try stopping the agent, saving, then restarting. Also check that required fields (name and email for external managers, or agent selection for internal) are filled in.

Legacy managerId not resolving

Older configurations may use config.managerId instead of config.manager.agentId. The resolveManager() function handles both, but saving the form will migrate to the new format automatically.

Catch-up arrives at the wrong time

Double-check the timezone setting. The time is interpreted in the selected timezone, not UTC or the server's local time. Ensure you've selected the correct IANA timezone from the dropdown.

AgenticMail Enterprise Documentation Report an issue