Agent lifecycle
Agents move through a predictable lifecycle from first idea to production behavior. This page covers the stages TAS tracks beyond what’s in the Git file itself.
Draft and stable
Section titled “Draft and stable”Every agent has two runtime surfaces:
| Surface | What it is | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | The live file on your repo’s default branch | The agent chat surface, and Run now when a pending draft exists (probe and iterate) |
| Stable | A numbered snapshot frozen in the database after promotion | Schedules, Slack, webhooks, and triggers by default; Run now when draft matches stable, or as an optional choice when a draft exists |
Until you promote a stable version, everything runs the draft. After promotion, automated paths use stable for predictability while chat still uses the draft. Manual Run now defaults to the draft only when it differs from stable — if the live file matches the current snapshot, the dialog offers only that stable version. When a pending draft exists, the confirmation names the exact version and can switch to a numbered stable snapshot.
See Core concepts → versioning for the mental model.
Promoting to stable
Section titled “Promoting to stable”On the agent detail page, Promote to Stable (vN) snapshots the current draft as the next numbered version and makes it the default for automated runs.
When a draft differs from stable, TAS marks it as Needs promotion in the Agents inventory and on the agent’s Versions navigation. The inventory badge shows the number of added and removed lines, along with when the draft and stable version last changed. Operators and admins also see an Action needed entry in the workspace sidebar. Use its Review link to open the affected agent directly, or to filter the inventory to all drafts awaiting promotion.
These notices never promote a draft automatically. They clear after you promote the draft, or after you revert the live file so its content matches stable.
- Who can promote — the agent’s owner, or any workspace admin. An admin who isn’t the owner sees a warning before confirming.
- When it’s available — only when the draft differs from the current stable (or no stable exists yet). A broken draft (parse errors) can’t be promoted.
- What it records — who promoted, when, and the version number. The Versions section lists every stable snapshot; compare them to see what changed when behavior shifted. The Versions tab has a bar for Definition, Evals, Eval file, and Code. Evals are optional — agents without a sidecar are not gated. If the agent has an eval file, Promote is blocked until assertions pass on this draft.
Schedules can opt into running the draft instead of stable — useful for dogfooding before promotion.
Agent ownership
Section titled “Agent ownership”Each agent can have an owner — a workspace member responsible for promoting changes. Set or change the owner on the agent detail page. Ownership matters for:
- The promote gate (owner or admin)
- Knowing who to ask when an agent misbehaves
- Member detail and offboarding checks
An agent with no assigned owner can still be promoted by any admin.
Creating agents
Section titled “Creating agents”From chat (Tembo)
Section titled “From chat (Tembo)”Describe a new agent; TAS hands the request to the Tembo Coding Agent Platform and opens a PR. Requires a Tembo API key in Settings → Tembo Coding Agent. See Authoring agents.
Pending agents
Section titled “Pending agents”While the PR is open, the agent appears in the Agents list with status Pending. Operators can Dismiss a pending create to stop tracking it in TAS — the GitHub PR is left alone and remains reachable from Tembo links.
By hand
Section titled “By hand”Commit a spec file directly to the connected repo under
agents/pydantic-agentspec/. TAS picks it up on the next page load, within
a few seconds of the commit landing on the default branch.
Chat-to-edit
Section titled “Chat-to-edit”Open an agent and use the chat surface to probe its behavior against the live draft — chat always runs the draft, not stable. When something needs to change, submit a change request from the chat thread. TAS opens a PR via Tembo (same as new-agent authoring). Review and merge; the draft updates on your default branch.
This is separate from Improve the Agent on a run, which anchors feedback to a specific execution — see Improvements.
Deleting and restoring
Section titled “Deleting and restoring”Delete agent removes the file from the connected repo (via a commit) and records the deletion in Audit. Deleted agents appear under Settings → Deleted agents so you can restore them — restore writes the file back with a new commit.
Workspace deletion
Section titled “Workspace deletion”Settings → Danger → Delete workspace removes all workspace data (members, runs, schedules, connections, secrets, audit) but does not touch your GitHub repository or its agent files. Admin-only, type-to-confirm. See Settings.