# Desk agent widget > Put a standing AI worker on a desk: wire widgets into it, give it a role and an instruction, and run it by hand, when its inputs change or on a timer. Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-desk-agent Section: Widgets > Build and automate Plans: All plans Updated: 2026-10-11 A Desk agent is an AI worker that lives on a desk. You wire other widgets into it, such as notes, a table or a browser, and give it a standing instruction, for example "keep a running summary of the wired notes". It reads what is wired in and does that job when you click **Run**, whenever one of its inputs changes, or on a regular interval. Its result shows in the widget, and it can write the result into a note for you. Use it for work you would otherwise repeat by hand: summarising notes as they grow, checking a few web pages for anything new, filling in missing details in a table, or drafting from the material on a desk. More about this widget ## Before you start - The Desk agent is on every plan. - **AI must be set up.** When you are signed in, agents run on your PlexiDesk credits. You can also use your own Anthropic key. See [AI credits and where your AI runs](https://plexiidesk.com/help) and [Add your own API keys](https://plexiidesk.com/help/api-keys). - You need a desk open. An agent reads widgets on its own desk. To bring in another desk, wire in a [Portal widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help) that shows it. ## Add a Desk agent 1. Open the desk you want the agent on. 2. Click **Add widget** in the centre of the header. 3. Click **Desk agent**. The **Add widget** menu groups widgets into columns by what they are for. **Desk agent** is in the **Build & automate** column. You can also type desk agent in the search box at the top of the menu and press `Enter`. You can also press `⌘` `K` on a Mac or `Ctrl` `K` on Windows, type desk agent and choose **Add Desk agent**. ### Start from the widgets it should work on - **From one widget.** Right-click a widget's title bar and choose **Create & link** > **Automate with an agent**. A new agent appears beside the widget, with the widget already wired in. - **From several widgets.** Hold `Shift` and click the title bar of each widget to select them. Right-click the title bar of one of them and choose **Organise** > **Automate 3 with an agent** (the number matches your selection). One agent appears to the right of them, with all of them wired in. ### Ask Plexii to set one up Tell Plexii about a job that should keep happening, for example "set up an agent that keeps a running summary of my meeting notes". Plexii proposes the agent, and can propose the wires into it, as cards for you to review. When you apply the card, the agent appears on the desk with **Active** unticked, so it does nothing until you tick **Active** or click **Run**. See [Review and apply Plexii's changes](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## What is in the widget From top to bottom: - **The role** the agent works in. It starts as **Generalist**. - **Quick jobs**, shown while the instruction is empty. - **The instruction box**, for the agent's standing instruction. - **The inputs line**, which counts the widgets wired in and names the first three. - **Manual**, **On change** and **Interval**: when the agent runs. - **Write to**: where the agent's result goes, besides the widget itself. - **Active** and **Run**, with the interval in seconds when the agent runs on an interval. - **The result**, and any **Proposed changes** for you to review. - **The footer**: when the agent last ran, and how many runs are logged. ## Wire in its inputs An agent reads only the widgets wired into it. 1. Point at the widget you want the agent to read, then click the link button in its title bar. Its tooltip says **Click, then click another widget to connect them**. 2. Click the agent. 3. In **How should this connect?**, choose **Feed in as context**. Repeat for each widget you want the agent to read. The inputs line changes from **No inputs — wire widgets into this agent** to the count and names, for example **2 inputs: Meeting notes, Budget**. See [Link widgets and set up wires](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-link-widgets). ### What an agent can read - **Text widgets** such as a Sticky, Note, Markdown, Page or Card: what is written in them. - **A Table:** its rows. - **A Field or a Custom block:** each label and value. - **A File or link widget:** the text inside a PDF, a Word .docx file, a spreadsheet or a text file. - **A Browser:** the page it is showing, including pages you are signed in to. The agent can also use the browser to research. See [Research the web with a Browser](#research-the-web-with-a-browser). - **A Portal:** the whole desk the portal shows. - **Another Desk agent:** its instruction and its latest result. From each input, the agent reads up to the first 2,000 characters. For a long document, wire in the part you need, or a summary of it. When the agent researches with a Browser, it also reads the pages it opens there. ## Give it a role The role shapes how the agent approaches the work: what it pays attention to, its judgement and its tone. Rest the pointer on the role to read its full description. 1. Click the role at the top of the widget. 2. Click a role, or type in **Search roles…** to find one. The list starts with six general roles: | Role | Good for | | --- | --- | | **Generalist** | A capable, practical all-rounder. | | **Research Analyst** | Digging into sources and summing up what they say. | | **Project Manager** | Turning material into prioritised, practical next steps. | | **Copywriter** | Clear, plain-language writing. | | **Data Wrangler** | Turning messy material into clean records. | | **Critic / QA** | Finding gaps, risks and errors. | More specialist roles follow them in the list. ### Create your own role 1. Click the role, then **Create new profile…** at the bottom of the list. 2. In **New agent profile**, describe what the agent should be good at, then click **Draft with AI** to fill in the rest. Or fill it in yourself. 3. Check the **Profile name**, the **One-line summary** and **How it works (its expertise + approach)**, and pick an icon. 4. Click **Save profile**. The agent takes the new role. A name and **How it works** are both needed. Roles you create are saved on this computer and appear in the role list of every agent on it. To delete one, point at it in the list and click its bin. See [Choose or create an agent role](https://plexiidesk.com/help). ## Write its instruction ### Start from a Quick job While the instruction box is empty, **Quick jobs** above it offer five common jobs. Each one fills in the instruction, picks a role and sets when the agent runs. You can change any of them afterwards. | Quick job | What it sets up | Role | Runs | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Research** | Researches each wired item and writes a short, sourced summary of the key facts. | Research Analyst | **Manual** | | **Monitor** | Watches the wired sources and flags what is new since the last run. | Generalist | **Interval**, every 3,600 seconds (once an hour) | | **Summarise** | Keeps a running summary of everything wired in, leading with the three most important points. | Copywriter | **On change** | | **Draft** | Drafts an email, a post or a document section from the wired material. | Copywriter | **Manual** | | **Enrich a table** | Fills in the empty fields of each row in a wired table, leaving a field blank rather than guessing. | Data Wrangler | **Manual** | ### Write your own Click in the box, which suggests **Standing instruction, e.g. keep a running summary of the wired notes**, and say what the agent should do. Your instruction is saved as you type. - **Give it one job.** "List the decisions in the wired notes, one per line" works better than an instruction that asks for four things. - **Say what to produce,** not just what to look at. - **Type @** to pick a desk, widget, document or person by name. Naming something does not wire it in: the agent reads only the widgets wired into it. ### Suggestions while you type - **Better fit.** When another role clearly suits your instruction, a strip appears under the box: **Better fit:** and the role's name. Click **Switch** to give this agent that role, or **+ linked** to add a second agent with that role beside this one, with the same instruction and settings, wired to the same widgets. Click **×** to hide the suggestion. This suggestion is worked out on your computer, without AI. - **Design a specialist for this.** Once your instruction is more than ten characters long, this link appears under it. Click it and AI writes a new role made for your instruction (the link shows **Designing…** while it works). A card shows the new role's name and summary. Click **Replace this agent** to give this agent the new role, or **Create linked agent** to add a second agent with it, wired to the same widgets. Either way, the role is saved to your role list. Click **×** to dismiss it. ## Choose when it runs Click one of the three buttons: | Trigger | When the agent runs | | --- | --- | | **Manual** | Only when you click **Run**. A new agent starts on **Manual**. | | **On change** | A moment after any wired input changes. A burst of quick edits makes one run, not many. | | **Interval** | Every so many seconds, while the desk is open. Set the number in the **every … s** box beside **Active**. The shortest interval is 30 seconds; a new agent starts at 120. | **Active** is ticked on a new agent. Untick it to stop **On change** and **Interval** runs. **Run** still runs the agent once whenever you click it. ## Run it 1. Click **Run**. The button shows **Running…**, and the widget shows **Thinking…** until the first result arrives. 2. Read the result in the widget. The footer shows when the agent last ran, for example **ran 5m ago**, and how many runs are logged. The agent keeps a log of its last eight runs. If something stops a run, the reason shows in red where the result would be. For example, clicking **Run** before writing an instruction shows **Give the agent an instruction first.** ## Where its result goes The result always shows in the agent. Each new run replaces it. To keep results somewhere you can read and build on, write them into a note, or wire the agent to another widget. ### Write each result into a note 1. Open the **Write to** list. It starts at **Nowhere — just show the result**. 2. Choose a Note or Markdown note on this desk, listed by type and name. Or choose **Add a Note…** or **Add a Markdown note…** to add a new one to the right of the agent, named after it, for example **Desk agent output**. 3. Choose how each run writes there. The button beside the list switches between **append**, which adds each result under what is already there, and **replace**, which swaps it. A new agent starts on **append**. 4. Run the agent. The result arrives as a card under **Proposed changes** in the agent. Click the card to write it in, or click **×** on it to dismiss it. To skip the card for this destination, tick **Write without asking me first**. Each run then writes straight in, and the result in the agent starts with **Written to** and the note's name. Anything else the agent proposes still arrives as a card. Choose **Nowhere — just show the result** to stop writing anywhere. ### Keep a Page or a Table up to date with a wire Draw a wire from the agent to the widget, and choose **Keep in sync** when asked how it should connect. After each run, the agent's latest result is written into that widget in its own form, without a card: - **A Page, Note, Markdown note or Sticky** is replaced with the latest result. A Page gets real headings, bullet lists and paragraphs. - **A Table** is updated by the table's AI: rows that match are updated, new items are added as rows, and other rows are left alone. The inputs line then also shows **feeds** and the number of widgets the agent delivers to. To see what a wire wrote, or undo a write with **Revert this write**, click the line. See [Link widgets and set up wires](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-link-widgets). ### Proposed changes Besides its result, an agent can propose changes to the widgets wired to it, such as filling in cells or adding rows in a wired table, or adding to a wired document. It can also propose new things, such as a document, a desk or a draft email. Each one arrives as a card under **Proposed changes**, saying what it would do and why. - Click a card to apply it. - Click **×** on a card to dismiss it. - When there are several, tick the boxes beside the ones you want and click **Apply selected**, or click **Apply all** to apply every card. Each button shows how many cards it will apply. Nothing is changed until you apply a card. A new run replaces any cards you have not dealt with. ## Research the web with a Browser Wire a [Browser widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-browser) into the agent and the agent can use it. It reads the page that is showing, can open other pages and can search the web in that browser, then writes up what it found. - The Browser goes to the pages the agent visits, so give the agent a Browser of its own rather than one you are reading. - With a Browser wired in, the agent researches and reports. It does not propose other changes, but **Write to** and wires from the agent still deliver its result. ## See and manage your agents - **On this desk:** the **Automations** panel lists every agent and wire on the desk, when each last ran and whether it worked, with a switch to turn each one off. See [See what runs on its own on a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-automations). - **On every desk:** in Brain, open **Agents** to see every desk agent in your workspace, the desk it is on, whether it is active and when it last ran. Click an agent to go to its desk. See [See and manage all your agents](https://plexiidesk.com/help). When you publish a live view of a desk, a Desk agent shows as a placeholder. Its instruction and results are not published. See [Publish a live view of a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/share-live-web-view). ## Good uses - **A running summary.** A **Summarise** agent wired to your meeting notes, writing to a Note. See [Keep a running summary with a desk agent](https://plexiidesk.com/help). - **A watch on a web page.** A **Monitor** agent wired to a Browser on a page you check often. - **A fuller table.** An **Enrich a table** agent wired to a table of companies, proposing the missing details for you to apply. - **A second pair of eyes.** A **Critic / QA** agent wired to a draft Page, run before you send the draft. - **A research digest.** A **Research** agent wired to a Browser and to a Note listing what to look into, writing its findings to another Note. ## Common questions ### My agent does not run on its own Check that **Active** is ticked and that the trigger is **On change** or **Interval**. An **On change** agent runs when a wired input changes, so check the inputs line for the widgets you expect. An **Interval** agent runs while its desk is open. ### The result shows in the agent but not in my note Check that **Write to** names the note. Unless **Write without asking me first** is ticked, each result waits as a card under **Proposed changes** until you click it. If the agent says it described its work instead of writing it, nothing was saved: change the instruction to ask for the finished text itself, for example "Write the summary", and run it again. ### Does an agent change my widgets without asking? Only in two cases you set up yourself: a **Write to** destination with **Write without asking me first** ticked, and a wire from the agent to another widget. Everything else it proposes waits for you to apply it. ### Can an agent read a widget on another desk? It reads widgets on its own desk. To bring in another desk, add a [Portal widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help) that shows it, and wire the Portal into the agent. ### Are the roles I create on my other computers? Roles you create are saved on the computer where you made them. ### The agent shows a message about AI or an API key The agent needs AI to run. Sign in to use your PlexiDesk credits, or add your own Anthropic key. See [AI settings](https://plexiidesk.com/help/settings-ai). ## Related tasks - [Build & automate widgets](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widgets-build-and-automate) - [Choose or create an agent role](https://plexiidesk.com/help) - [See and manage all your agents](https://plexiidesk.com/help) - [Link widgets and set up wires](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-link-widgets) - [See what runs on its own on a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/canvas-automations)