Overview
Tool-calling agents, multi-agent flows, and the ottom8 Assistant.
The Agent component
An Agent component wraps a model with a set of tools and a loop: given a goal, it decides which tool to call, observes the result, and repeats until it has an answer. Attach any Tool component to an Agent's Tools input to make it available.
Multi-agent flows
Agents compose like any other component. A common pattern is a router agent that hands off to specialized sub-agents, each wired as its own branch of the flow — each sub-agent can have its own model, tools, and prompt.
The ottom8 Assistant
The Assistant is a panel alongside the canvas that builds flows and components for you from a natural-language description, instead of you dragging and wiring them by hand.
Modes
The Assistant has three modes, selectable from the mode dropdown:
- Ask — answers questions about your flow or about ottom8 without changing the canvas.
- Plan — proposes a flow and lets you review it before anything is added.
- Build — proposes a flow and adds it straight to the canvas.
Giving it context
Select a node on the canvas before asking a question — the Assistant tags that node (and its immediate neighbors) as context automatically, so a follow-up like "add retry logic to this" is scoped to the selected part of the flow rather than the whole canvas.
Generating components
If the Assistant's plan needs a component that doesn't exist yet, it writes one and adds it to the flow alongside the rest of the plan — you don't end up with a flow that's missing pieces because a step couldn't be matched to an existing component.
Reviewing changes
In Plan mode, review the proposed nodes and connections before approving. Approving applies the change to the canvas the same way a manual edit would, so it's still undoable like any other canvas action.