# Build manually

The manual editor is the full builder. Identity stays visible at the top; the rest is a row of tabs — Persona, Instructions, Model, Tools, Skills, Connections, Test — with a live preview on the right.

## Identity — always on top

Above the tabs, three fields stay visible no matter where you are:

- Icon — pick from the icon library.
- Name — e.g. Release manager. It must be unique.
- Role — the function this agent performs. Picking a role gives the agent Foxora’s managed doctrine and a managed brain; your instructions layer on top. See Roles explained.

## Persona

The persona is the agent’s “soul” — who it is, not what it can do. Four short fields:

- Title — one line, how the agent describes itself, e.g. “a senior software engineer.”
- Personality — e.g. “Capable, direct, proactive.”
- Values — what it optimizes for, e.g. “Do the work; tell the truth; least surprise.”
- Voice — e.g. “Concise and warm; technical when it counts.”

At the bottom, Surfaces picks where the agent answers (chat, code, agents, web, cli).

## Instructions

This is this agent’s own guidance — how it behaves, beyond its role. The role already provides Foxora’s managed doctrine, so instructions are an addendum, not the whole brain. Leave it empty to run purely on the role.

> Specialize with skills, not forked promptsResist pasting a giant prompt here. If the agent needs a repeatable procedure, make it a skill and attach it — skills load on demand and are reusable across agents.

## Model

Most agents should stay Foxora-managed: the agent runs on its crew’s tier, and Foxora resolves the best model for that tier automatically, with provider fallback. You never type a raw model name.

- Fast — quick, everyday tasks.
- Pro — the default; strong general-purpose work.
- Max — the hardest reasoning and the trickiest builds.

Switch to Your own model to pin a specific model from a provider you’ve connected — that’s bring your own keys. Full details in Models & tiers.

## Tools

Pick the tools this agent may use, from the workspace belt (read, write, edit, bash, grep, lsp_inspect…) plus anything added by your connected MCP servers. To grow the catalogue, connect an app under Connections.

## Skills

Attach the skills the agent should load. You can spin up a new skill inline with New skill (name + description) without leaving the editor, then flesh out the playbook later in the Skills section.

## Connections

Wire the agent to the outside world:

- Apps & MCP servers — the connected apps / MCP servers this agent can use. Connect more with Connect app, which opens Settings → Connections.
- Channels — external places it runs (Slack, email, Discord…), each needing a connection.

## Save

Click Create agent (or Save agent when editing). It appears in the Agents library and is available to the composer and to crews. The Test tab lets you run a real turn before you ship it.

> Built-in agents are read-onlyFoxora’s built-in agents (Coder, Researcher, Scout…) show their model, tools, and skills, but their persona and instructions are managed for you — the Persona and Instructions tabs only appear on agents you create.