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Agent Autonomy

Configure what the agent does automatically — daily routines, catch-ups, goal checks, knowledge contributions, and escalation behavior.

Contents

Overview

For Everyone

Autonomy settings are the agent's daily routine. Just like a good employee doesn't need to be told to check their email every morning, an autonomous agent can clock in on schedule, review unread messages, check on goals, and escalate issues to its manager — all without being asked. This tab lets you configure exactly which automatic behaviors are enabled and when they happen.

For Developers

Autonomy settings are stored in engineAgent.config.autonomy. The save mechanism is context-aware:

The form tracks dirty state and only enables the Save button when changes exist. All times are interpreted in the agent's configured timezone (from the Workforce tab schedule).

How It Works

  1. Load — Existing autonomy config is read from engineAgent.config.autonomy and merged with defaults.
  2. Configure — Toggle individual behaviors on/off and configure their schedules using the card-based UI.
  3. Save — Click "Save" to persist changes. The save method is chosen automatically based on agent state (hot-update for running, config patch for stopped).
  4. Execute — The agent's runtime evaluates these settings and triggers automated behaviors at the configured times.

Key Concepts

Master Switch

The "Enable Autonomy System" toggle is the master switch for all automated behaviors. When disabled, no autonomous actions will be taken regardless of individual toggle settings. All other cards show reduced opacity when the master switch is off.

Warning: Disabling the master switch immediately stops all automated behaviors. The agent will only respond when explicitly triggered.

Auto Clock-In/Out

Automatically clocks the agent in and out based on the work schedule defined in the Workforce tab. No additional configuration needed here — it uses the schedule times directly.

Daily Manager Catch-Up

At a set time each workday, the agent reviews unread emails, messages, and pending tasks, then sends a summary to its manager. The time is configured in the Manager & Catch-Up tab.

Weekly Manager Catch-Up

A deeper weekly review that includes summaries, reports, and planning. Configure which day of the week to send it using the day-of-week selector. Uses the same time as the daily catch-up.

Goal Progress Checks

The agent reviews Google Tasks at configured hours. Enter check times as comma-separated 24-hour values (e.g., "14, 17" for 2 PM and 5 PM). The last check of the day serves as an end-of-day review.

Weekly Knowledge Contribution

The agent reviews its learnings from the week and contributes to the organization's role-based knowledge base. Configure the day and time for this contribution.

Smart Answer Escalation

When the agent can't answer a question, it follows a three-step process:

  1. Search its own memory for the answer.
  2. Search shared Drive/knowledge base.
  3. If still unsure, escalate to its manager.

This prevents the agent from giving wrong answers when it doesn't know something.

Runtime Guardrail Enforcement

When enabled, the agent self-monitors by evaluating guardrail rules on inbound emails and tool calls at runtime. This is a proactive safety measure — the agent checks itself before acting.

Drive Access Requests

When the agent can't access a needed file (permissions error), it requests access from its manager instead of failing silently. This ensures the agent gets the resources it needs while maintaining access controls.

Best Practices

Troubleshooting

Changes show "agent will reload within 10 min"

This is normal for running agents. Hot updates are queued and applied at the next configuration check cycle (up to 10 minutes). If you need immediate effect, restart the agent.

Daily catch-up not sending

Check: (1) The master switch is enabled, (2) Daily catch-up is toggled on, (3) The agent is clocked in at the catch-up time, (4) The agent has a manager configured. Also check the Activity tab for any errors.

Goal checks not running

Verify the goal check hours are valid 24-hour values (0-23) separated by commas. The agent must be online and clocked in at the check time. Google Tasks integration must be configured.

"Unsaved changes" won't go away

You have modified settings that haven't been saved. Click "Save" to persist them or reload the page to discard. The dirty state tracker compares current form values against the loaded config.

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