Verk

Agent Configuration

Model selection, temperature, tools, knowledge base setup

Agent Configuration

Configure your AI agents to perform exactly as needed by selecting the right model, adjusting behavior parameters, enabling tools, and providing context through knowledge bases. Proper configuration ensures your agents work effectively and consistently.

Model Selection

Choose the AI model that powers your agent based on your needs and budget.

Available Models

GPT-4 Turbo

  • Best for: Complex reasoning, detailed analysis, and multi-step tasks
  • Strengths: Excellent instruction following, broad knowledge
  • Speed: Moderate (2-5 seconds per response)
  • Cost: Higher tier

GPT-3.5 Turbo

  • Best for: Quick responses, simple categorization, routine tasks
  • Strengths: Fast, cost-effective, reliable
  • Speed: Fast (1-2 seconds per response)
  • Cost: Lower tier

Claude 3 Opus

  • Best for: Long-context analysis, detailed writing, complex workflows
  • Strengths: Excellent reasoning, strong safety guardrails
  • Speed: Moderate (2-4 seconds per response)
  • Cost: Higher tier

Claude 3 Sonnet

  • Best for: Balanced performance and cost
  • Strengths: Good reasoning, fast responses, cost-effective
  • Speed: Fast (1-3 seconds per response)
  • Cost: Mid tier

Claude 3 Haiku

  • Best for: High-volume, simple tasks
  • Strengths: Very fast, extremely cost-effective
  • Speed: Very fast (under 1 second per response)
  • Cost: Lower tier

Changing the Model

  1. Navigate to your agent settings
  2. Click Model Configuration
  3. Select your preferred model from the dropdown
  4. Click Save Changes

The agent will use the new model for all future interactions. Existing task history remains unchanged.

** Pro Tip**: Start with a mid-tier model like Claude 3 Sonnet or GPT-3.5 Turbo. Upgrade to premium models if you need better reasoning or analysis capabilities.

Temperature Settings

Temperature controls how creative or deterministic your agent's responses are.

Understanding Temperature

Temperature: 0.0 - 0.3 (Focused)

  • Responses are consistent and predictable
  • Best for: Data extraction, categorization, structured output
  • Use when: You need the same input to produce nearly identical output

Temperature: 0.4 - 0.7 (Balanced)

  • Mix of consistency and creativity
  • Best for: General task management, email processing, summary generation
  • Use when: You want reliable results with some variation

Temperature: 0.8 - 1.0 (Creative)

  • More varied and creative responses
  • Best for: Content generation, brainstorming, exploratory analysis
  • Use when: You want diverse ideas and creative solutions

Temperature: >1.0 (Experimental)

  • Highly unpredictable and creative
  • Best for: Creative writing, unconventional ideas
  • Use when: Maximum variety is more important than consistency

Setting Temperature

  1. Open agent settings
  2. Navigate to Behavior Settings
  3. Adjust the Temperature slider
  4. Test with sample inputs
  5. Save when satisfied with results

** Important**: High temperature (>0.8) may produce inconsistent results for structured tasks like data extraction or categorization.

Tool Configuration

Tools define what actions your agent can perform in Verk.

Available Tools

Task Management

  • create_task - Create new tasks
  • update_task - Modify existing tasks
  • delete_task - Remove tasks
  • search_tasks - Find tasks by criteria

Project Management

  • create_project - Create new projects
  • update_project - Modify project details
  • list_projects - View available projects

Assignment & Organization

  • assign_task - Assign tasks to team members
  • add_labels - Add tags to tasks
  • set_priority - Set task priority levels
  • set_due_date - Schedule task deadlines

Information Retrieval

  • get_task_details - Retrieve full task information
  • search_knowledge_base - Query uploaded documents
  • list_team_members - See available assignees

Enabling Tools

  1. Go to agent settings → Tools
  2. Review available tools
  3. Toggle on the tools your agent needs
  4. Click Save Configuration

Example configuration for "Email Processing Agent":

  • create_task - To create tasks from emails
  • assign_task - To assign to team members
  • add_labels - To categorize by type
  • set_priority - To mark urgent items
  • delete_task - Email agent shouldn't delete tasks
  • create_project - Email agent doesn't create projects

** Best Practice**: Only enable tools your agent actually needs. Fewer tools reduce confusion and improve performance.

Tool Permissions

Control which projects and tasks your agent can modify:

All Projects

  • Agent can access any project in the organization
  • Best for: General-purpose agents

Specific Projects

  • Limit agent to selected projects only
  • Best for: Department-specific or client-specific agents

Configuration:

  1. Agent settings → Permissions
  2. Select All Projects or Specific Projects
  3. If specific, choose projects from the list
  4. Save changes

Knowledge Base Setup

Upload documents to give your agent context and reference information.

Adding Documents

  1. Navigate to agent settings → Knowledge Base
  2. Click Upload Documents
  3. Select files or drag and drop
  4. Wait for processing to complete
  5. Verify documents appear in the knowledge base list

Supported formats:

  • PDF documents
  • Microsoft Word (.docx)
  • Plain text (.txt)
  • Markdown (.md)
  • CSV spreadsheets
  • Web pages (paste URL)

Document Types

Reference Materials

  • Company policies and procedures
  • Product documentation
  • Style guides and templates
  • FAQs and knowledge articles

Contextual Information

  • Client requirements and briefs
  • Project specifications
  • Meeting notes and decisions
  • Historical data and past examples

Structured Data

  • Team member expertise and availability
  • Project templates and structures
  • Priority frameworks
  • Naming conventions

Knowledge Base Limits

Free Plan:

  • 10 documents per agent
  • 5 MB max file size
  • 50 pages total across all documents

Pro Plan:

  • 100 documents per agent
  • 20 MB max file size
  • 500 pages total per agent

Enterprise Plan:

  • Unlimited documents
  • 100 MB max file size
  • Unlimited pages

Managing Knowledge Base

Update documents:

  1. Navigate to Knowledge Base
  2. Click the document to update
  3. Click Replace to upload a new version
  4. The agent will use the latest version

Remove documents:

  1. Find the document in the list
  2. Click the three-dot menu
  3. Select Remove from Knowledge Base
  4. Confirm deletion

Search knowledge base: Test what information your agent can find:

  1. Click Test Knowledge Base
  2. Enter a sample query
  3. Review retrieved information
  4. Adjust documents if needed

** Pro Tip**: Keep documents focused and well-organized. Multiple small, topic-specific documents work better than one large document.

Advanced Configuration

Response Length

Control how verbose your agent's responses are:

Concise (50-100 words)

  • Brief summaries and quick answers
  • Best for: Status updates, quick categorization

Standard (100-300 words)

  • Balanced detail and brevity
  • Best for: Most use cases

Detailed (300-500 words)

  • Comprehensive explanations
  • Best for: Complex analysis, documentation

Very Detailed (500+ words)

  • Extensive analysis and documentation
  • Best for: Research, comprehensive reports

Custom Instructions Priority

When an agent has both system-level and custom instructions:

  1. Custom instructions take priority
  2. System instructions provide baseline behavior
  3. Tool configurations override both if there are conflicts

Rate Limiting

Prevent agents from overwhelming your system:

Actions per hour:

  • Free: 50 actions/hour
  • Pro: 500 actions/hour
  • Enterprise: Unlimited

Actions per day:

  • Free: 200 actions/day
  • Pro: 2,000 actions/day
  • Enterprise: Unlimited

Concurrent operations:

  • All plans: Maximum 5 simultaneous operations

Retry Configuration

Configure how agents handle failures:

Automatic Retries:

  • Default: 3 retry attempts
  • Retry delay: 2 seconds (exponential backoff)
  • Max retry delay: 30 seconds

Custom retry settings:

  1. Agent settings → Advanced → Retry Logic
  2. Set maximum retry attempts (0-5)
  3. Configure retry delay (1-60 seconds)
  4. Enable/disable exponential backoff

Configuration Templates

Save and reuse agent configurations:

Saving Templates

  1. Configure an agent completely
  2. Click Save as Template
  3. Enter template name and description
  4. Choose sharing (private or organization-wide)
  5. Click Create Template

Using Templates

  1. Create a new agent
  2. Click Start from Template
  3. Select a template
  4. Customize as needed
  5. Save the agent

Popular template configurations:

Email Processor

  • Model: GPT-3.5 Turbo
  • Temperature: 0.5
  • Tools: create_task, assign_task, add_labels, set_priority
  • Knowledge base: Team assignments, priority guidelines

Meeting Notes Analyzer

  • Model: GPT-4 Turbo
  • Temperature: 0.3
  • Tools: create_task, assign_task, set_due_date
  • Knowledge base: Project contexts, team member roles

Content Categorizer

  • Model: Claude 3 Haiku
  • Temperature: 0.2
  • Tools: add_labels, update_task
  • Knowledge base: Category definitions, tagging guidelines

Research Assistant

  • Model: Claude 3 Opus
  • Temperature: 0.7
  • Tools: create_task, search_tasks, search_knowledge_base
  • Knowledge base: Research guidelines, citation formats

Testing Configuration

Verify your agent works as expected before deploying:

Test Mode

  1. Navigate to agent settings → Testing
  2. Enable Test Mode
  3. Enter sample inputs
  4. Review agent responses and actions
  5. Adjust configuration based on results

Test scenarios to try:

Task Creation:

  • Input: Typical email or message
  • Expected: Task created with correct fields

Categorization:

  • Input: Various task descriptions
  • Expected: Appropriate labels applied

Assignment:

  • Input: Task requiring specific expertise
  • Expected: Assigned to correct team member

Priority Setting:

  • Input: Tasks with different urgency levels
  • Expected: Correct priority assigned

Test Logs

Review detailed logs of agent behavior:

  1. Agent settings → Test Logs
  2. View input, reasoning, and actions taken
  3. Check for errors or unexpected behavior
  4. Export logs for detailed analysis

Troubleshooting Configuration

Agent Not Responding

Check:

  • Model is selected and available
  • Agent is enabled (not paused)
  • Rate limits not exceeded
  • Tools are properly enabled

Fix:

  1. Review agent status in settings
  2. Check recent activity logs
  3. Verify API credentials if using external models
  4. Contact support if issues persist

Inconsistent Results

Common causes:

  • Temperature too high (>0.8)
  • Instructions too vague
  • Conflicting instructions
  • Insufficient knowledge base context

Fix:

  1. Lower temperature to 0.3-0.5
  2. Make instructions more specific
  3. Review instructions for conflicts
  4. Add relevant documents to knowledge base

Wrong Actions Performed

Common causes:

  • Too many tools enabled
  • Unclear instructions about when to use tools
  • Missing permission restrictions

Fix:

  1. Disable unnecessary tools
  2. Add specific guidelines about tool usage
  3. Restrict agent to specific projects
  4. Add approval workflows for critical actions

Slow Performance

Common causes:

  • Large knowledge base (>100 documents)
  • High-complexity model (GPT-4, Claude Opus)
  • Too many concurrent operations

Fix:

  1. Reduce knowledge base size
  2. Switch to faster model for simple tasks
  3. Implement rate limiting
  4. Split complex agents into specialized agents

Best Practices

Start Simple Begin with minimal configuration and add complexity as needed:

  1. Choose a mid-tier model
  2. Enable only essential tools
  3. Add 2-3 key documents to knowledge base
  4. Test thoroughly before expanding

Monitor and Iterate Regularly review agent performance:

  • Check activity logs weekly
  • Review success rates for key actions
  • Gather feedback from team members
  • Adjust configuration based on results

Document Configuration Keep records of why you configured agents certain ways:

  • Add notes in agent description
  • Document template purposes
  • Track configuration changes
  • Share learnings with team

Security Considerations Protect sensitive information:

  • Limit tool access to necessary projects
  • Review knowledge base for sensitive data
  • Use test mode before production deployment
  • Monitor for unexpected behavior

Cost Optimization Balance performance and budget:

  • Use faster, cheaper models for simple tasks
  • Reserve premium models for complex reasoning
  • Monitor usage and adjust rate limits
  • Review and remove unused agents

Related Documentation

Need help configuring an agent? Contact our support team or check the FAQ.

On this page

Agent ConfigurationModel SelectionAvailable ModelsChanging the ModelTemperature SettingsUnderstanding TemperatureSetting TemperatureTool ConfigurationAvailable ToolsEnabling ToolsTool PermissionsKnowledge Base SetupAdding DocumentsDocument TypesKnowledge Base LimitsManaging Knowledge BaseAdvanced ConfigurationResponse LengthCustom Instructions PriorityRate LimitingRetry ConfigurationConfiguration TemplatesSaving TemplatesUsing TemplatesTesting ConfigurationTest ModeTest LogsTroubleshooting ConfigurationAgent Not RespondingInconsistent ResultsWrong Actions PerformedSlow PerformanceBest PracticesRelated Documentation