The Agent node

The Agent node runs a goal-directed AI agent that reasons over several turns and uses the tools of the extensions you make available to it. Unlike the AI Prompt node's single request, the Agent decides its own steps at run time to reach the goal you describe. This article is for workspace users with the Admin role or higher who build workflows in the Designer.

• What the Node Does
• Inline or a Saved Agent
• Configuration Fields
• Grounding on Knowledge
• Structured Input and Output
• Approval Gating and Auto-Approve
• Usage Credits

What the Node Does

Add an Agent node from the AI section of the palette. When the step runs, the agent works toward the goal you set, calling the tools exposed by the extensions you have selected and adapting its next step based on what each tool returns. It runs a multi-turn loop rather than a single prompt.

Inline or a Saved Agent

An Agent node can work in two ways:

• Inline — define the goal and extension scope directly on the node, for one-off use in this workflow
• Reference a saved agent — point the node at an installed or custom agent by its slug. The saved agent supplies the goal, extension scope, and any input and output contract, and the inline extension picker is locked.

Installed and custom agents are managed on the Agents page. See the articles on browsing and installing agents from the catalog and on creating custom agents.

Configuration Fields

• goal — what you want the agent to accomplish, in natural language. It supports {{ }} binding expressions, so you can fold in values from earlier nodes.
• allowedExtensions — the extensions whose tools the agent may use (selected as Required extensions in the node). Keep the list focused; the Designer warns if the selected extensions expose more tools than the model's tool limit.
• model — an optional model override. Leave it blank to inherit the default.
• timeoutSeconds — how long the agent may run, from 30 to 1800 seconds (default 600)
• autoApprove — whether the agent may run mutating tools without pausing for approval (see below)

An Agent node can run with no extensions, in which case it reasons without tools. If you reference a saved agent definition, that definition supplies the extension scope and the inline extension picker is locked.

Grounding on Knowledge

You can ground an Agent node on your knowledge base so it reasons with your own documents. In the node's grounding section, attach one or more Knowledge folders or documents; each appears as a chip you can remove. At run time AutomationAI recalls the most relevant passages and supplies them to the agent, and the grounded agent also gets a built-in knowledge search tool it can call during its run to look for more detail. For the full picture, see the article on grounding agents and AI Prompt nodes on knowledge.

Structured Input and Output

A saved agent can declare an input schema and an output schema. When the referenced agent declares an input schema, the node shows a binding table where you map each input field to an upstream node's output. The agent's declared output fields appear as bindable paths, so later nodes can reference specific parts of the agent's result. For how bindings work in general, see the article on passing data between nodes.

Approval Gating and Auto-Approve

By default, when an agent wants to run a tool that changes data — a mutating or approval-gated tool — the run pauses and waits for a person to approve the action. Turning on autoApprove lets the agent run those tools without pausing.

Only the Owner or Admin role can enable auto-approve; the toggle is disabled for Members, and the setting is enforced when the workflow is published or tested. Use it with care, since it removes the human checkpoint before changes are made. When a run is waiting on approval, you handle it from the Inbox (see the article on handling Action Required items in the Inbox).

Usage Credits

The Agent node calls a language model across its turns, so each run consumes Usage Credits based on the tokens used. See the article on understanding Usage Credits and billing for how tokens convert to Credits.