Create Your First Custom Agent

A step-by-step tutorial to build and deploy your own AI agent in Fabric.

This tutorial walks you through creating a custom AI agent tailored to your specific workflow. In about 15 minutes, you'll have a working agent that can be used by your team.

What You'll Build

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have:

Created a custom agent with specific instructions
Configured which tools the agent can use
Tested the agent with real conversations
Deployed it for your team to use

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

✅ A Fabric AI account with admin or member role
✅ An AI provider configured (see AI Configuration)
✅ Understanding of what your agent should do

Step 1: Plan Your Agent

Before creating an agent, define its purpose:

Define the Use Case

What specific task will this agent handle? Examples:

Generate weekly status reports
Create customer onboarding documents
Draft API documentation from code
Write test plans for features

Identify Required Tools

What external tools does your agent need?

RAG — Access to knowledge bases
MCP Tools — GitHub, Jira, Slack, etc.
Code Execution — For data processing

Determine Approval Requirements

Should the agent require human approval for certain actions?

Creating external tickets
Posting messages
Modifying documents

Step 2: Create the Agent

Navigate to Agents

Go to Agents in the left sidebar, then click Create Agent.

Fill in Basic Information

Configure the agent's identity:

Name: Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Weekly Report Generator")
Description: Explain what the agent does
Icon: Choose an emoji or upload an icon
Visibility: Personal, Organization, or Public

Write the System Prompt

The system prompt defines your agent's behavior. Here's a template:

You are a specialized AI assistant for [PURPOSE].

## Your Role
[Describe the agent's primary function]

## Guidelines
- [Guideline 1]
- [Guideline 2]
- [Guideline 3]

## Output Format
[Describe the expected output format]

## Constraints
- [What the agent should NOT do]
- [Limitations to respect]

Example for a Weekly Report Generator:

You are a Weekly Report Generator that creates structured status updates for engineering teams.

## Your Role
Generate comprehensive weekly reports based on team activity, completed work, and upcoming priorities.

## Guidelines
- Always include: Accomplishments, In Progress, Blockers, Next Week
- Use bullet points for clarity
- Keep each section concise but informative
- Include relevant metrics when available

## Output Format
Use the following structure:
# Weekly Report - [Date Range]

## Accomplishments
- [Completed items]

## In Progress
- [Current work]

## Blockers
- [Issues needing resolution]

## Next Week
- [Planned work]

## Metrics
- [Relevant numbers]

## Constraints
- Do not make up information
- Ask for clarification if information is missing
- Keep the report under 500 words unless requested otherwise

Configure Tools

Enable the tools your agent needs:

RAG Access

Toggle on RAG if the agent needs to reference documents
Select which workspaces it can access

MCP Tools

Enable specific MCP servers (GitHub, Jira, etc.)
Choose which tools from each server are available

Execution Settings

Enable code execution if needed
Set timeout limits

Set Approval Requirements

Configure human-in-the-loop settings:

Auto-approve: All actions execute automatically
Require approval for external actions: MCP tool calls need approval
Require approval for all actions: Every action needs approval

Save the Agent

Click Create Agent to save your configuration.

Step 3: Test Your Agent

Before sharing with your team, test thoroughly:

Start a Test Conversation

Click on your new agent to open a chat. Try your primary use case:

Generate a weekly report for the Authentication Team.

This week we:
- Completed OAuth integration with Google
- Fixed 3 critical security bugs
- Started work on passkey support

Blockers:
- Waiting on security review for passkey implementation

Next week:
- Complete passkey implementation
- Begin load testing

Verify Output Quality

Check that the agent:

Follows your specified format
Uses appropriate tone
Includes all required sections
Handles edge cases gracefully

Test Edge Cases

Try scenarios that might break the agent:

Minimal information
Conflicting requirements
Missing context
Very long inputs

Iterate on the Prompt

Based on testing, refine your system prompt:

Add missing guidelines
Clarify ambiguous instructions
Add examples of good output

Step 4: Add Context (Optional)

Enhance your agent with RAG context:

Create a Workspace

Go to Workspaces → Create Workspace and name it appropriately (e.g., "Report Templates").

Upload Reference Documents

Add documents that will help your agent:

Example reports from past weeks
Team guidelines and standards
Templates to follow

Link Workspace to Agent

In your agent's settings, enable RAG and select the workspace.

Step 5: Deploy to Your Team

Set Visibility

Choose who can use the agent:

Personal: Only you
Organization: All members of your organization
Public: Anyone with the link (use carefully)

Organization members can find the agent in the Agents list. For external sharing, copy the agent's URL.

Gather Feedback

Ask early users for feedback:

Is the output useful?
What's missing?
What could be improved?

Advanced Configuration

Using Template Variables

Make your agent more flexible with variables:

You are a {{DOCUMENT_TYPE}} generator for {{TEAM_NAME}}.

Generate {{DOCUMENT_TYPE}} documents following {{TEAM_NAME}}'s standards.

Users can fill in these variables when starting a conversation.

Chaining with Other Agents

Your custom agent can work with the Orchestrator:

User: "Generate a weekly report and post it to Slack #engineering"
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Orchestrator               │
│  1. Route to Weekly Report Generator    │
│  2. Generate report                     │
│  3. Use Slack MCP to post               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Version Control

Fabric tracks changes to your agent:

View version history
Roll back to previous versions
Compare versions

Example Agents

Meeting Notes Summarizer

You are a Meeting Notes Summarizer that converts raw meeting transcripts into structured summaries.

## Output Format
# Meeting Summary - [Topic]

**Date**: [Extract from transcript]
**Attendees**: [List participants]

## Key Discussion Points
- [Main topics discussed]

## Decisions Made
- [Clear decisions with owners]

## Action Items
| Action | Owner | Due Date |
|--------|-------|----------|
| [Task] | [Name] | [Date]   |

## Next Steps
- [Follow-up items]

Bug Report Generator

You are a Bug Report Generator that creates detailed, actionable bug reports from user descriptions.

## Guidelines
- Extract all relevant technical details
- Identify steps to reproduce
- Categorize severity appropriately
- Suggest potential root causes when possible

## Output Format
# Bug Report: [Brief Title]

**Severity**: [Critical/High/Medium/Low]
**Component**: [Affected system]

## Description
[Detailed description of the issue]

## Steps to Reproduce
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step 3]

## Expected Behavior
[What should happen]

## Actual Behavior
[What actually happens]

## Environment
- Browser/OS: [Details]
- Version: [App version]

## Potential Causes
- [Hypothesis 1]
- [Hypothesis 2]