Core Docs - Core Concepts - Configure an Agent

Rock Version: v20.0
Last Modified: 2026-04-30 3:49 PM

Agents are configured under Admin Tools > Settings > AI Agents. Select Agents, then add a new one or choose an existing one to edit.

Before configuring your first agent, set your organization context under Settings on the same page. That context applies to every agent you build, so it's worth doing once up front. See Setting Your Organization Context for details.

Agent settings

Type

Chat agents live inside Rock. Staff access them through the docked chat panel on person profiles. This is the right starting point for most organizations.

MCP agents connect Rock to an external AI tool running on someone's computer, like Claude Desktop. Once connected, that tool can look up records and take actions in Rock using the person's own security permissions. See Set Up a Model Context Protocol Agent# for the full walkthrough.

Audience

Audience is one of the most important decisions you'll make for each agent.

Internal agents are for staff and trusted volunteers. They work with your full data set and the full range of skills you assign.

Public agents are for anyone — visitors to your website, people filling out a form, anyone who might interact without a staff login. The skills you attach to a public agent should reflect that. Keep them narrow and purpose-built. If a skill surfaces personal data you wouldn't hand to a stranger, it doesn't belong on a public agent.

When in doubt, start Internal.

Instructions

Instructions are where you shape how the agent behaves. Think of it as a short onboarding note: tell the agent how to act, what to prioritize and what to avoid.

A few things worth including:

Keep it short. A long list of rules is harder to follow consistently than a clear set of priorities. Start simple and add only when you notice a real gap.

Testing

Before sharing an agent with your team, test it yourself, more than once. AI doesn't produce identical results every run, so test your most important prompts at least a few times and look for consistency.

Also test as the people who will use it. Log in as a volunteer and try it. If the agent surfaces something that person shouldn't see, the fix is in your Rock security, not the agent configuration.