Designing agents in the studio
This guide covers the three ways to shape a RAiN AI Project: building with a prompt, editing on the canvas, and starting from a template — plus the knowledge base that grounds your agents in real business facts.
Build with a prompt
The fastest way to design is to describe what you want and let RAiN draft it.
From the Studio home:
- Type what the project should do into the big prompt box (or click an example chip).
- Click Build it — a new project is created, designed, and opened on the canvas.
Inside a project:
- Open the Build with AI panel (left side; the panel icon in the toolbar shows/hides it).
- Type a request into the chat — a first design, or an incremental change like "add a reviewer that checks the reply before it goes out."
- Click Build. The assistant replies with what it added ("Done — added 1 agent and 1 task…") and the canvas updates.
Changes are additive: the assistant adds what you asked for and never wipes your existing work. You can keep the conversation going, one refinement at a time.
Edit on the canvas (Visual Editor)
The canvas shows agents and tasks as connected cards:
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Move things around | Drag any card; your layout is saved automatically |
| Edit an agent or task | Click the card (or right-click → Edit) |
| Add an agent or task | Use the + buttons on the canvas |
| Connect a task to an agent | Drag a line from the agent to the task |
| Delete something | Right-click the card → Delete, then confirm |
Editing an agent, you set:
- Role — who it is, e.g. Customer Support Specialist.
- Goal — what it's trying to achieve.
- Backstory (optional) — persona and working style.
- Model — which AI model powers it (see Models & LLM connections).
- Tools — built-in abilities it may use.
Editing a task, you set the description (what to do), the expected output (what "done" looks like), and which agent performs it. Tasks run in order, and each one can see the outputs of the tasks before it.
Start from a template
Templates (in the sidebar) are proven setups from the RAiN package catalog — customer support, sales follow-up, marketing content, reports, and more.
- Open Templates and pick one.
- Click Use template — a full copy lands in your workspace and opens on the canvas.
- Rename it, edit the agents' goals for your client's context, and replace the knowledge with theirs.
The template itself is never changed by your edits — clone as many times as you like.
The knowledge base
Open Settings in a project's toolbar to set its knowledge — free text the agents treat as trusted context: business facts, menus, price lists, FAQs, policies. If a prompt-built project needs knowledge, the designer may draft a starting point for you; keep it current and your agents stay accurate.
FAQs
The assistant added more than I wanted. Delete the extras on the canvas (right-click → Delete), then ask again more narrowly — e.g. "add ONE task that…". Requests are additive, so cleanup is safe.
Can two agents share a task? A task has one performing agent, but its output flows to every later task — chain tasks to pass work between agents.
How big should a project be? Start small: 1–3 agents and 1–4 tasks covers most real jobs. It's easier to grow a working small project than debug a sprawling one.
Did my canvas changes save? Yes — edits and layout save as you work. If something looks stale, refresh the page.
Related: RAiN Build overview · Models & LLM connections · Running agents & reading traces