Build and edit agents from chat and WhatsApp

When your organisation has Agent Builder, you can ask Centrus to build an agent in the middle of an ordinary chat. Describe the job in plain words. Centrus drafts the whole agent behind the scenes, tells you what it will do, and saves nothing until you reply to say whether to keep it as a draft or publish it.

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Your personal chat history, excluding agent-generated threads.

John MartinAccounts09 Oct 09:03

Chase overdue invoices agentHere is the plan for Chase overdue invoices...

2

John MartinSOPs08 Oct 16:42

Daily job summary at 07:30Here is the change to Daily job summary...

John MartinTechnical07 Oct 11:20

Fixflo issue agentI can't change New Fixflo issue to BigChange job...

John MartinSOPs06 Oct 08:16

PPM tasks due this weekExcel and Outlook are both connected...

John MartinContracts03 Oct 09:14

Riverside House P1 response and call-outUnder the Riverside House SLA, a priority 1 fault...

John Martin

Chase overdue invoices agent

last message sent: 1 minute ago

Accounts

Every weekday at 08:30, check Xero for invoices more than 14 days overdue and email me a summary from my Outlook at john.martin@meridianfm.co.uk.

09:02

3

Worked · 3 steps

Here is the plan for Chase overdue invoices:

• Starts: every weekday at 08:30, on a schedule
• Does: finds Xero invoices more than 14 days overdue and writes a short summary with the customer, invoice number, amount and days overdue
• Sends: the summary to john.martin@meridianfm.co.uk from your Outlook
• Needs connecting: Xero and Outlook

Nothing has been saved yet. Reply save the draft to keep it as a draft while you connect Xero and Outlook, or publish it to put it live straight away.

09:03

4

Save the draft

5

Centrus may make mistakes. Check important info.

1. 1Chat, in the menu on the left. Any chat works, whatever its tag.
2. 2The chat you are building in. It is an ordinary chat and stays in your list.
3. 3Your request: what should start the agent, what it should do, and where the result goes.
4. 4The plan. Centrus names the agent and lists how it starts, its steps and the accounts it needs. Nothing is saved yet.
5. 5Your reply decides what happens next: save the draft, publish it, or ask for a change.

The same works on WhatsApp and in Microsoft Teams, with the same permissions. This guide is about building and changing agents by message. To run an agent from a chat once it exists, see Run an agent from chat and WhatsApp. To build inside Agent Builder with its own AI panel, where you watch the canvas change as you type, see Build your first agent from a message.

Building from chat is off until an admin turns it on for the whole organisation. One switch covers the chat page, WhatsApp and Teams, and the same switch lets people run agents that have a chat trigger.

1. 1Open Settings from the menu on the left.
2. 2Open the Organisation tab. Only admins see this tab.
3. 3Turn on Enable Agent Builder chat tools. The change is saved as soon as you click the switch.

The text under the switch only mentions calling workflows that have a chat trigger and showing their run history. It also turns on drafting, saving, publishing and changing agents by message. It takes effect from the next message anyone sends, and turning it off stops building from chat in the same way.

See Organisation for the other settings on this tab.

Once the switch is on, what each person can do depends on their access to each agent, not on whether they are an admin.

• New agents. Anyone in your organisation who chats with Centrus can ask for a new agent. They become the owner of the agent it saves, which gives them Edit access to it.
• Changing an agent. You need Edit access to that agent. The owner always has it, and other people have it when the agent has been shared with them at the Edit level.
• Admins. In chat, admins have the same access as everyone else. To change an agent from chat, an admin needs Edit access to it too.
• Which agents Centrus knows about. When you ask what agents exist, Centrus lists the ones you have Use or Edit access to, and leaves out archived agents.
• Sharing and accounts. From chat, only an agent's owner can change who it is shared with, or whose connected accounts it uses. Admins make those changes in Agent Builder.

John Martin

Fixflo issue agent

last message sent: 2 minutes ago

Technical

Change New Fixflo issue to BigChange job so it also emails Sarah Price whenever it creates a job.

11:18

Worked · 3 steps

I can't change New Fixflo issue to BigChange job from here, because you don't have Edit access to it. Ask its owner, Sarah Price, or an admin to give you Edit access. In the meantime I can tell you what the agent does, or draft a separate agent of your own.

Edit access is needed to change an agent

Type a message...

When you ask to change an agent you cannot edit, Centrus says so and changes nothing. The agent's owner or an admin can give you Edit access in Agent Builder. See Share an agent.

Open a chat, or start a new one, and describe the job in plain words. You do not need to know which steps Agent Builder uses. A good request says three things:

• What starts it: a time, such as every weekday at 08:30, or an event, such as an email arriving or a new issue in Fixflo.
• What it should do: what to look up, check, write or create along the way.
• Where the result goes: who to email, which spreadsheet to update, or which system to write to.

If you mention email but do not say whether to send it from Outlook or Gmail, or do not give an address, Centrus asks before it drafts anything. It does the same when a filter it needs is missing, such as which Simpro records to include. Answer in your next message and it carries on.

John Martin

Chase overdue invoices agent

last message sent: less than a minute ago

Accounts

Can you set up an agent that emails me every weekday morning about overdue invoices in Xero?

09:00

Worked · 2 steps

I can draft that. Two things first:

• Should the email go from your Outlook or your Gmail?
• Which address should it go to, and how many days overdue should an invoice be before it is included?

Questions before anything is drafted

Outlook, to my own address. Include anything over 14 days.

On the chat page you can attach a document or a screenshot to your request, such as a spreadsheet laid out the way you want, or a picture of a process you want copied. Centrus looks at it, and so does the drafting, which reads up to five attachments from the message you send.

On a phone the chat page works in the same way. While Centrus drafts, the Working panel shows Drafting an automation. In chat, Centrus sometimes calls an agent an automation: the two words mean the same thing.

09:41

Centrus

John Martin

Chase overdue invoices agent

Accounts

Every weekday at 08:30, check Xero for invoices more than 14 days overdue and email me a summary from my Outlook at john.martin@meridianfm.co.uk.

09:02

Working · Drafting an automation

Reading your request

Analysing your request

Drafting an automation

Drafting the agent

Type a message...

Drafting takes a little while, because Centrus builds the complete agent and checks that it is valid before describing it to you. The plan is in Centrus's own words, so its layout varies, but it always covers the same ground.

If you want something different, say so in your next message: for example, send it at 09:00 instead, or leave out invoices under £100. Centrus drafts the agent again with your change and shows a new plan. Each plan is kept for 15 minutes. If you reply after that, Centrus drafts it again before it saves anything.

If the request leaves out something the agent cannot work without, Centrus explains what is missing in plain language and asks you for it, instead of showing a plan.

Your reply to the plan decides what happens. Centrus never saves in the same message as the plan: it always waits for your answer.

• Save the draft or save it: Centrus saves the agent as a draft, and the Working panel shows Saving an automation draft. A draft is not live. It does not run on its schedule, start from an email or alert, or answer in chat until it is published.
• Yes, go ahead, publish it or do it: Centrus saves the agent and publishes it. The Working panel shows Saving the automation, and the agent is live from that moment.
• Anything else, such as a change: Centrus drafts a new plan and asks you again.

A plain yes publishes the agent and puts it live. If you want to connect its accounts, test it or look at it in Agent Builder first, reply save the draft instead.

For a new agent, saving a draft is the safer choice. You can connect its accounts, run a Spike Test and check it on the canvas, then publish it in Agent Builder or by asking Centrus to publish it. See Test an agent before it goes live and Publish, pause and restore versions.

Publishing can fail, for example when your organisation has no Agent Builder subscription, or already has as many live agents as its plan allows. Centrus tells you the reason. A new agent has already been saved as a draft by that point, so look for it in Agents before you ask again, or you may end up with two copies.

Most agents read from or write to other systems, and every agent has its own connections. Connecting Outlook to an agent is separate from connecting Outlook for your own chats on the Integrations page.

Once the agent is saved, Centrus gives you a Connect link for each account that still needs connecting. Links are available for Outlook, Gmail, Excel, Word, OneDrive, SharePoint and Xero.

1. 1Click a Connect link. It opens the sign-in page for that service.
2. 2Sign in and allow access. Centrus then opens the Chat page with a notification: Outlook connected, for example, and You can close this tab and go back to the chat.
3. 3Close that tab and go back to your conversation. Connect the next account in the same way.
4. 4Ask Centrus whether everything is connected. It checks each connection there and then and tells you which account is connected.

Search chats, messages, and people...

Folders

Your personal chat history, excluding agent-generated threads.

John MartinAccounts09 Oct 09:03

Chase overdue invoices agentHere is the plan for Chase overdue invoices...

John MartinSOPs08 Oct 16:42

Daily job summary at 07:30Here is the change to Daily job summary...

John MartinTechnical07 Oct 11:20

Fixflo issue agentI can't change New Fixflo issue to BigChange job...

Select a thread

Outlook connected

You can close this tab and go back to the chat.

Close this tab and carry on in the chat

Centrus only sends links for the seven services listed above. For anything else the agent needs, such as the login details a Browser Use step signs in with, it tells you to set them on the step in Agent Builder. If you published straight away, the agent is live while you connect, but its runs cannot use an account until it is connected.

To change an agent, name it in your request and say what should be different. Centrus finds it by name, and if more than one agent matches, it asks which one you mean. You can ask it to:

• Change when it runs, such as moving a daily summary from 07:00 to 07:30.
• Add, remove or change steps, such as sending a copy to Sarah Price or leaving out jobs for Northgate Housing.
• Rename it or change its description.
• Go back to an earlier version, such as version 3, or give a version a name so it is easy to find later.

You get the same kind of plan as for a new agent, showing what will change, and the same choice of replies.

When the agent is live, publish it changes it straight away. Save the draft saves your change as a new version, but the agent keeps running the version that was last published until you publish again, and it stays Live in the Agents list in the meantime.

Centrus can also answer questions about your agents without changing anything: what an agent does, which accounts it needs and whether they are connected, or how its recent runs went. To run an agent there and then, see Run an agent from chat and WhatsApp.

On WhatsApp you can draft, save, publish, connect and change agents just as you can on the web, with the same permissions. The conversation follows the usual WhatsApp pattern: Centrus first replies Message received, generating response, please wait…, then sends its answer as plain text. There is no Working panel.

09:41

Centrus

Today

Every Monday at 07:00, read the Harbour View Apartments PPM tracker in Excel and email me the tasks due that week from my Outlook.

08:10

Message received, generating response, please wait…

08:10

Here is the plan for PPM tasks due this week: - Starts: every Monday at 07:00 - Does: reads the Harbour View Apartments PPM tracker in Excel and picks out the tasks due that week - Sends: the list to you from your Outlook - Needs connecting: Excel and Outlook Nothing is saved yet. Reply "save the draft" or "publish it".

08:11

1

Message

09:41

Centrus

Save the draft

08:12

Message received, generating response, please wait…

08:12

PPM tasks due this week is saved as a draft. It is not live yet. Connect Excel:

https://app.centrus.ai/connect/eyJvcmdhbml6YXRpb25JZCI6MTIsInVzZXJJZCI6NDEsImFnZW50SWQiOjMwOCwicHJvdmlkZXIiOiJtaWNyb3NvZnRfZXhjZWwiLCJ3YVRvIjoiKzQ0NzcwMDkwMDEyMyJ9.Hc4kQ22

Connect Outlook: https://app.centrus.ai/connect/eyJvcmdhbml6YXRpb25JZCI6MTIsInVzZXJJZCI6NDEsImFnZW50SWQiOjMwOCwicHJvdmlkZXIiOiJvdXRsb29rIiwid2FUbyI6Iis0NDc3MDA5MDAxMjMifQ.p9sL1x Each link works once.

08:12

Message

1. 1The plan, as plain text.
2. 2A Connect link for each account, as a web address you tap.

Connect links on WhatsApp work a little differently from those on the web. Each one opens once, expires after 30 minutes, and only connects that one account to that one agent. Tap it to open the sign-in page in your phone's browser and sign in.

After you sign in, the page reads Outlook connected, or the name of the service you connected, and You can close this and go back to WhatsApp. Centrus also sends a message to confirm, naming the account. If a link has already been used or is more than 30 minutes old, the page says Can't open this link. Connect the account on the step in Agent Builder instead.

09:41

Centrus

✅ Outlook (john.martin@meridianfm.co.uk) is now connected. Your automation is ready to go.

08:14

1

Is Excel connected as well?

08:15

Message received, generating response, please wait…

08:15

Yes. Excel and Outlook are both connected. PPM tasks due this week is still a draft, so reply "publish it" when you want it to start running.

08:16

2

Message

1. 1The confirmation Centrus sends once an account is connected.
2. 2Ask Centrus to check the rest. It checks each connection there and then.

The WhatsApp confirmation says Your automation is ready to go even when the agent is still a draft. A draft does not run until it is published.

In Microsoft Teams, building works as it does on WhatsApp, except that Connect links are ordinary sign-in links. After you sign in, the Centrus Chat page opens in your browser with the connected notification, and you carry on in Teams. See Message Centrus on WhatsApp and Chat on Microsoft Teams for setting up each one. WhatsApp and Teams conversations also appear in your chat list on the web, where you can read them but not reply.

Centrus does not send a link to the agent it saved. To open it, find it in the Agents list.

1. 1Open Agents from the menu on the left.
2. 2Type the agent's name in Search agents…, or click Filter, then Status, then Draft to see only drafts.
3. 3Click Open in builder on its row.

The row shows the Custom badge and Draft or Live, the description Centrus wrote, when the agent was created, and your name under Created by. If Agents is not in your menu, your user does not have Agent access: ask an admin, or see Open Agent Builder.

Chase overdue invoices1

Draft savedRunsSettings

Save and Publish3

Weekday mornings

Daily at 08:30 · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri

Find unpaid invoices

List invoices · outstanding

Over 14 days overdue

Keep ALL of 1 rule(s)

Write the summary

GPT-5.6 Terra

Email the summary

1 action enabled

2

AI builderMap

Not validated yet

1. 1The name Centrus gave the agent. You can change it here.
2. 2The steps Centrus drafted, connected in order.
3. 3Save and Publish puts the agent live when you are ready.

In the builder, the steps Centrus drafted are on the canvas as if you had added them yourself. You can change them by hand or with the AI panel. See Find your way round the canvas.

• A plan is kept for 15 minutes and can be saved or published once. After that, Centrus drafts it again.
• Connect links sent on WhatsApp work once and expire after 30 minutes.
• The drafting reads up to five attachments from the message you send.
• From chat you cannot archive, pause or delete an agent, or restore an archived one. Do these from the Agents list or in Agent Builder.
• Centrus describes the plan in words only. To see the steps laid out, save the draft and open it in Agent Builder.
• Publishing counts towards your organisation's limit on live agents, which is 100 unless your plan sets a different number.

Each answer Centrus gives uses message credits from your organisation's allowance, as any chat does, with 1 extra credit on WhatsApp. Drafting a plan also uses automation credits, based on the AI work involved, and so do runs and Spike Tests. See Automation credits and usage limits and Credits.