Agents¶

Vandelay agents are built on Agno's Agent class with additional layers for workspace-driven prompts, hot-reloadable tools, and persistent memory.

Agent Lifecycle¶

Config loaded: Settings read from config.json, .env, and environment variables
Model created: LLM provider initialized from model.provider and model_id
Tools resolved: Enabled tools instantiated from the tool registry
Workspace assembled: Seven markdown files compose the system prompt
Agent created: Agno Agent (or Team) instantiated with all components
Ready: Agent accepts messages via ChatService

System Prompt Assembly¶

The system prompt is built from workspace files in ~/.vandelay/workspace/:

File	Purpose
`SOUL.md`	Core personality, communication style, behavioral rules
`USER.md`	User preferences, context, personal details
`AGENTS.md`	Team delegation rules: which member handles what
`TOOLS.md`	Tool usage guidance, best practices per tool
`HEARTBEAT.md`	Proactive tasks to check during heartbeat
`BOOTSTRAP.md`	One-time startup instructions
`MEMORY.md`	Persistent notes the agent maintains

These files are yours to edit. Changes take effect on the next agent reload.

Hot Reload¶

When you enable or disable a tool (via CLI or chat), the agent is recreated with the new tool set without a server restart. The AgentProvider protocol ensures ChatService always gets the current agent instance.

Single Agent vs Team¶

Single agent (team disabled): One agent with all enabled tools
Team mode (default): A supervisor delegates to specialist members with scoped tools

See Teams for details on team mode.