Agent Editor

The Agent Editor is where you create an agent and change everything about it: its identity, its instructions, the events it hears about, and its backlog. It opens as a full page in its own tab.

The Agent Editor has no sidebar entry. Open it from an agent:

• Agents › Team: click an agent’s avatar, or the pencil (Edit agent) on its tile. Click Add Agent to create a new agent.
• Agents › Team › Agent Library: click a card to edit a global agent that this project doesn’t use.
• Agents › Sessions: click the agent’s name above its terminal and choose Edit agent…. When the agent isn’t running, click Edit Agent. Click Add Agent below the agent list to create one.
• Agents › Chat: hover over an agent’s name and click Agent Settings.

Layout

On the left is the agent list, as in Agents › Sessions. Click an agent to open its terminal in Sessions.

The header shows the agent’s avatar and name, with Agents above it (Agent Library for a library agent). It has these buttons:

Button	What it does
Back arrow	Goes back to the page you came from.
Cancel	Goes back without saving.
Create Agent / Save Changes	Saves and goes back. Disabled while the name is empty or already taken.

If you leave with unsaved changes, Neova asks Discard changes? Choose Keep editing or Discard.

Below the header are the tabs:

Tab	Shows when
General	Always.
Events	Always. Shows the number of events, or (none).
Backlog	When you edit an existing agent. Shows the number of items.
Notebook	When you edit an existing agent.

General

Banners

• When you create an agent: Reuse a global agent with Add from global library. It lists the agents you made global in other projects. Choose one to add it to this project.
• When the agent is global: a notice that edits update the agent across all projects that use it.
• When you edit a library agent: a notice that it is not in this project and that saving updates it for every project that uses it.

Identity

Field	What it does
Avatar	Click it to choose an avatar. Tabs: Standard (illustrated avatars), Icons (an icon and a Color) and Upload (JPEG, PNG or WebP, max 2MB; for existing agents only). Reset to Default removes your choice.
Agent Name	Required. Must be unique in the project.
Description	Up to 100 characters. Shows on hover cards and tiles.
Start command	The command Neova runs when the agent’s terminal starts, for example claude.
Detection profile	How Neova reads the agent’s terminal output to tell whether it is working, idle or needs you. Open profile in global Settings goes to Settings › Agents. Not shown for library agents.

Voice

How the agent sounds when it speaks to you.

Field	What it does
Can send voice messages	Lets the agent send short spoken updates in the chat. Turning it on downloads the voice model if it isn’t there yet.
Voice	Choose one of ten voices, for example Nova or Atlas. Click the play button to hear it. The agent uses the same voice in every project, and for Read aloud.
Language	English or Dutch.

Instructions

The agent’s role and how it should work, in a Markdown editor. Neova sends the instructions to the terminal when the agent starts.

Click Insert to add a reference to a standard, skill, MCP tool or snippet at the cursor.

Make global

Shows for agents that belong only to this project. Click Make global and confirm. The agent’s identity (name, description, instructions, start command, avatar and default events) moves to your global agent library and becomes available in every project. The notebook, backlog, detection profile and terminal link stay with this project.

Delete agent

Click Delete Agent and confirm with Delete. This removes the agent and its configuration from the project. It cannot be undone.

For a library agent the section is Remove from library. It removes the agent from your library on this Mac. Projects that already use it keep their own copy, but it no longer receives updates.

Events

The events Neova types into the agent’s terminal. Check an event to turn it on. With no events checked, a warning says the agent won’t receive any notifications, and the agent shows a muted bell in the Sessions list.

Section	Event	Sent when	On for new agents
Chat	User messages	You send a message in Chat.	Yes
	Agent messages	Another agent sends a message in Chat.	Yes
	Mentions	The agent is @mentioned. Included when either of the two above is on.	Yes
Tasks	Task assigned	The agent is added to a task.	Yes
	Task unassigned	The agent is removed from a task.	Yes
Stages	Task entered stage	A task moves into one of the chosen stages. Click All stages or a stage name to add it. Click × on a chip to remove it.	No
Agent Workspace	Question answered	You answer a question the agent asked.	Yes
	Backlog reminder	The agent is idle and has items waiting in its backlog.	Yes
	Scheduled actions	A schedule runs on this agent. Turn it off and the agent skips its schedules.	Yes

The text of each message is set in Settings › Agents › Event Messages.

Backlog

The agent’s to-do list. The top item has the highest priority.

• Drag an item by its handle to reorder.
• Click an item’s text to edit it. Enter saves, Esc cancels.
• A label shows who added the item: Agent or User.
• Click × (Remove item) to remove it.
• Click Add item to add one. With an empty backlog, click Add first item.

Changes are saved when you click Save Changes.

Notebook

Notes the agent writes for itself. You can read them here but not edit them. With no notes, it says No notes yet. The agent can write notes here.

How to create an agent

1. Go to Agents › Team and click Add Agent.
2. Type an Agent Name, for example Software Engineer.
3. Type a Start command, for example claude.
4. Write the Instructions.
5. Optionally choose an avatar, a Detection profile and the events on the Events tab.
6. Click Create Agent.

How to change an agent’s instructions

1. On Agents › Team, click the agent’s avatar.
2. Edit the text under Instructions.
3. Click Save Changes.

A running agent gets the new instructions when you redeploy them. See Sessions.

How to make an agent global

1. Open the agent in the Agent Editor.
2. On General, click Make global.
3. Click Make global in the confirmation.

To use it in another project, open that project and click Add on the agent under Agents › Team › Agent Library.

How to choose which events an agent receives

1. Open the agent and click Events.
2. Check or uncheck the events.
3. Under Stages, click the stages the agent should hear about.
4. Click Save Changes.

Related

• Team and Sessions
• Settings › Agents for global agents, event messages and detection profiles
• MCP tools agents use for their own backlog and notebook: get_backlog, add_backlog_item, get_notebook, append_to_notebook and more