Add Your First AI Agent

This guide continues from the Installation Guide. Now that you've installed FabriXWork and logged in, let's set up your first AI agent.

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Meet Fred — Your Team Concierge

Before adding your first agent, you'll notice Fred — Team Concierge is already available in your sidebar:

What is Fred?

Fred is your built-in AI assistant who helps you navigate FabriXWork. Think of Fred as your onboarding buddy and guide—not a worker agent like Alex or the others you'll add later.

Fred is your go-to for:

• Finding the right agent for any task (e.g., "Which agent should I use to build a web app?")
• Answering questions about using FabriXWork
• Coordinating between team members when you need multiple agents working together

What Fred Cannot Do

It's important to understand Fred's role:

Fred is not connected to any folder and has no workspace configured. This is by design—Fred is here to help you learn and navigate, not to execute tasks on your files.

When to Use Fred

Use Fred when you:

• ✅ Are new to FabriXWork and have questions
• ✅ Don't know which agent to use for a task
• ✅ Want to understand how something works
• ✅ Need help getting started

Switch to a worker agent (like Alex, Claire, etc.) when you:

• ✅ Need to work on actual files
• ✅ Want to create documents, analyze data, or execute workflows
• ✅ Have a specific task that requires file access

Add Your First Agent: Alex - Business Analyst

Let's add your first working agent using Alex - Business Analyst as an example.

Step 1: Open the Agent Directory

1. Look at the left sidebar
2. Click the "+ Add New Team Member" button
3. The Agent Directory opens

Step 2: Find Alex

In the Agent Directory:

• Use the search bar to type "Alex"
• Or browse by team (Alex is under Operations)
• Click on the Alex - Business Analyst card

Step 3: Add Alex to Your Team

1. On Alex's profile page, click "Add to My Team"
2. A confirmation modal appears
3. Keep the default display name "Alex" (or customize it if you prefer)
4. Click "Add to Team"

Connect Alex to a Local Folder

This is a key step: each agent needs a local folder to work with.

Why Connect a Folder?

Agents interact with files in their connected folder. They can:

• Read documents to understand context
• Analyze spreadsheets and extract insights
• Generate new files based on your instructions
• Update existing documents

How to Connect a Folder

1. After adding Alex, click on Alex in your sidebar

2. The main chat area opens

3. You'll see a prompt to connect a workspace folder

4. Click "Browse"

5. Navigate to a folder on your computer and select it

6. Set up the workspace templates with all the suggested folder structure enabled, then click "Next"

7. (Optional) Add additional instructions to let Alex know what the project is about, then click "Start Chat with Alex"

   What to write in "What would you like help with?"

   This is your chance to give Alex a head start. For example:

   I'm working on a fundraising campaign for our NGO. I need help 
   reviewing our meeting notes and creating a campaign proposal.
   

   Tips:

   • ✅ Be brief but specific about your goal
   • ✅ Mention the type of output you need (report, proposal, summary, etc.)
   • ❌ Don't worry about writing perfectly, Alex will ask questions if needed

   Optional but Helpful

   You can skip this step and just start chatting. But providing context upfront helps Alex understand your needs faster and give more relevant responses.

8. Alex is now ready. You can continue adding related files to provide more context—see the example below.

Example: NGO Fundraising Campaign Folder

For this example, imagine you work at an NGO planning a fundraising campaign. You've created a folder called ABC-Project" with:

ABC-Project/
├── fundraising-campaign-2026/
│   └── ideas.docx
└── meeting-notes/
    ├── meeting-notes-20260223.docx
    ├── meeting-notes-20260302.docx
    └── meeting-notes-20260309.docx

Once connected, Alex can read these files to help you:

• Summarize meeting notes
• Generate campaign proposals
• Create presentation outlines
• Draft sponsorship emails

Start Interacting with Alex

Now that Alex is connected to your folder, let's try your first interaction.

Example: Ask Alex to Review Meeting Notes

Type this in the chat box at the bottom:

Hi, I've just connected our Fundraising Campaign folder. 
Can you review the meeting notes and summarize the key decisions we've made so far?

Press Enter or click the Send button.

What Happens Next

Alex will:

1. Read the files in the connected folder
2. Analyze the meeting notes
3. Generate a summary of key decisions

Your First Agent Is Ready!

Congratulations! You've successfully:

• ✅ Added Alex - Business Analyst to your team
• ✅ Connected a local folder for Alex to work with
• ✅ Asked your first question and received a response

What's Next?

You've completed the basic setup. Now it's time to learn how to get better results from your agents.

Continue Learning

Next: Interact with an Agent — Learn best practices for giving clear instructions, including session configuration tips.

Explore More

• See Use Cases — Real-world examples of what agents can do
• Product Positioning — Understand what makes FabriXWork different

Quick Reference

Troubleshooting

For more tips, see Installation Issues or Agent Output Issues.