Compare your options
Choose the right option
Use these examples to identify the best starting point for your task.- You keep typing the same detailed request into Sense. Create a skill so you can reuse the instructions.
- Different people need the same report for different customers, sales reps, or time periods. Create a skill that accepts different inputs.
- Zuper already provides an agent for your task. Start with a Marketplace agent, such as the Weather Agent or Reputation Agent.
- You need a recurring report delivered automatically. Create a custom agent with a scheduled trigger.
- You need to review records, identify patterns, or summarize findings. Use a custom agent when the task requires analysis or judgment.
- An external system needs to send information to Zuper Sense for processing. Use a custom agent with a webhook trigger.
- A specific event in Zuper must trigger the same action every time. Use a workflow.
- A rule must be followed consistently without AI deciding the steps. Use a workflow.
- Every agent response must follow a particular rule. Add the rule to the agent’s Instructions.
- An agent needs to understand a company term, definition, or policy. Add that information to its Knowledge Base.
Agents and workflows
Agents and workflows can both run on schedules, respond to webhooks, and send messages or emails. The main difference is how they determine what to do.- Workflows follow the steps you configure, in the order you define them. They are suited to fixed rules and actions, including responding to events in Zuper, such as a job being created or an invoice being updated.
- Agents interpret their instructions and determine the steps needed to complete a task. They can review records, compare information, summarize findings, and produce results in natural language. Custom agents can run on a schedule, respond to a webhook, or be started with Run now.
You can use both together. For example, a workflow can handle a fixed action whenever a job is completed, while an agent sends a daily summary of completed jobs that may need follow-up.
Marketplace agents and custom agents
Start with the Marketplace to see whether Zuper already provides an agent for your task. Configure the agent and tailor its Custom Instructions and Knowledge Base entries to suit your business needs. Zuper maintains Marketplace agents as the product evolves. Build a custom agent when no Marketplace agent meets your requirements, such as generating a business-specific report, checking an internal process, or responding to information from an external system. See Custom agents to learn how to build and configure your own agent.Skills can be attached to custom agents only. To customize a Marketplace agent, such as the Weather Agent or Reputation Agent, use its Custom Instructions instead.
Skills: reusable instructions for a task
A skill defines how Sense should complete a particular task, including what to look for, what to include, and how to present the result. Create it once, then reuse it instead of typing the same detailed request each time. For example, you could create skills to:- Prepare an inspection follow-up list: List roof inspections completed in the last seven days that don’t have a quote yet. Group the results by sales rep and include the customer’s name, address, and inspection date.
- Summarize a homeowner proposal: Explain a roof replacement proposal in plain language, including the scope of work, shingle line and color, warranty, total price, and next steps.
- Review overdue invoices: List open invoices that are more than 30 days overdue and separate insurance-funded jobs from retail jobs.
Run a skill in Sense chat
- Open Sense chat from the home screen or a thread.
- Type
/in the chat box. - Select the skill you want to run.
- Provide any additional details needed to complete the task.
Attach a skill to a custom agent
You can also use a skill as part of a custom agent’s task, so the agent can follow the same procedure without someone running the skill manually.- Open the agent from My agents.
- Select Add skills.
- Choose the skill you want to attach.
@ in the Instructions editor and select the skill. If the skill isn’t already attached, referencing it attaches it to the agent.
Example: use one skill manually or automatically
Suppose your sales manager reviews stalled roof replacement quotes every Monday before the team meeting.- Create a skill. Name it Stalled reroof quotes and give it instructions such as: “List roof replacement quotes sent more than 14 days ago that are still open. Group them by sales rep, show the customer, quote amount, and days since sent, and flag quotes over $20,000.”
- Run it in chat. A sales rep types
/, selects Stalled reroof quotes, and adds a detail such as “only mine” or “only the Dallas branch.” Sense generates a response for that request in the rep’s chat thread. - Automate it with an agent. If the report needs to arrive every Monday without anyone asking, create a custom agent with a weekly Scheduled trigger and the Send Message (Chat) tool. Reference the skill in the agent’s Instructions, for example: “Every Monday, run @Stalled reroof quotes and post the list to the Sales channel.”
Skills, Instructions, and the Knowledge Base
Skills, Instructions, and the Knowledge Base all contain text, but each serves a different purpose. Keeping them separate makes your agents easier to maintain and reuse.
If your skill or agent Instructions contain lengthy definitions or policies, move that information to the Knowledge Base. This keeps the task instructions focused and lets other skills and agents reuse the same information.
Good to know
- Who can use skills: Skills belong to your company, and everyone in the company can see them in the
/list in Sense chat. Other Zuper customers can’t see your skills. Access to the/list requires Agent Studio to be enabled for your company. - Skill limits: A skill’s description can contain up to 200 characters, and its instructions can contain up to 7,000 characters.
- Data access: A skill defines how Sense should perform a task; it doesn’t grant access to additional data. Sense uses the data and knowledge available to it. If it can’t access something the skill requests, it does the closest supported task and tells you what it couldn’t do.
- Agent status: An agent runs on its configured triggers only while its status is Active. Draft and Paused agents don’t respond to their triggers. See Agent status types.
- Agent limits: Custom agents have limits on run frequency and the amount of data processed in a run. See Limits and good practices.
Related topics
- Custom agents: Build, test, and deploy a custom agent.
- Limits and good practices: Understand custom agent run, data, webhook, and knowledge limits.
- Skills: Create skills, run them with
/, and attach them to custom agents. - Knowledge Base: Provide agents with company terms, policies, and rules.
- Agent anatomy: Understand the components of an agent.
- Agent Studio overview: Learn about agents and their statuses.
- Marketplace agents: Configure ready-made agents.
- Workflow overview: Learn how to build a workflow.