What is an agent?
An agent is a chat session that can work independently. Each agent:- Has its own conversation history
- Can be assigned tasks
- Can attach to a notebook to write and run research code
Starting an agent
Click the New Agent button in the top left to create a new agent. You can also create agents from within a conversation when you need parallel work. Execution mode applies to every agent. Choose Notebook in Settings > General for interactive notebook work or Script for standalone files and shell-driven jobs. Agents created by other agents inherit the same mode.Parallel agents
The biggest time sink in research is sequential experimentation — you try one thing, wait, check results, then try the next. Qualia eliminates that by running multiple agents in parallel.Example: model comparison
Ask Qualia:“Compare three approaches: (1) random forest with default hyperparameters, (2) XGBoost with early stopping, and (3) a small neural network. Use 5-fold cross-validation for each. Run them in parallel.”Qualia creates three agents, each working on one approach simultaneously. When they finish, you can compare results side by side. Use the Parallelism research-style control in chat or under Settings > AI to choose how readily Qualia splits suitable work across agents. Low usually keeps work in one agent, Medium delegates when useful, and High proactively looks for parallel work.
Example: hyperparameter sweep
“Try learning rates of 0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 with the current model. Train each for 50 epochs and compare validation loss curves.”
Example: feature engineering
“Test three feature sets: (1) just the raw numeric columns, (2) with polynomial features, (3) with target encoding on categoricals. See which gives the best F1 score.”
The Agents sidebar
The Agents sidebar shows all your agents:- Status indicators: Running (spinner), completed (checkmark), paused, stopped, or waiting
- Hierarchy view: See parent-child relationships between agents
- Time grouping: Agents grouped by when they were created
- Pending confirmation: Agents waiting for approval (when confirmation is required)
Agent actions
From the sidebar, you can:- Open: Jump to an agent’s conversation
- Pause/Resume: Temporarily stop or continue work
- Stop: Permanently stop the agent
- Delete: Remove the agent and its history
Agent communication
Agents can communicate with each other:- Message agent: One agent can send a message to another
- Agent links: Click to navigate between related agents in chat
- Shared knowledge: Agents in the same project share the Knowledge System
Agent confirmation
When an agent wants to create a new parallel agent, it can require your approval first. This is controlled in Settings > AI:- Enabled: New agents wait for you to approve
- Disabled: Agents start immediately
Integration with tasks
Agents work on tasks:- Tasks can be assigned to specific agents
- Agents work through their task queue
- You can reassign tasks between agents in the Gantt view