An Official Agent is an AI assistant in Purple configured for a specific service, team, or business need. It brings together instructions, connected knowledge, and selected tools so its intended audience can get help with a defined set of questions or tasks.

For example, a department could have an Official Agent that helps staff understand its procedures using designated reference materials, with access limited to that department and changes managed by authorized editors.

Should I create a Personal Agent or request an Official Agent?

Create a Personal Agent when instructions and a small set of reference materials are enough to do the job. Request an Official Agent when you need advanced capabilities, connected knowledge or systems, or centrally managed access and maintenance. For a full comparison, please read Comparing Personal Agents and System Agents

Create a Personal Agent when you need to:

• Customize how an assistant responds, such as your preferred writing style or report format.
• Work with uploaded reference files or targeted website search.
• Support your own recurring tasks or test a prototype.
• Share a simple assistant by link, where sharing is enabled, without needing centrally managed access or additional integrations.

Example: an assistant that drafts your weekly update using your instructions and a few reference documents can be a Personal Agent.

Request an Official Agent when you need to:

• Have another specialized agent handle part of a task through agentic handoff.
• Give the assistant a reusable procedure for a defined task through Skills.
• Connect the assistant to tools or information in another system through MCP connections or APIs.
• Use Enterprise File Libraries for shared reference content with finer control over the library and its files.
• Provide a maintained assistant for a team or service, with controlled access and designated editors.

Example: an assistant that looks up information in a business system and involves a specialist agent to complete part of the task is a candidate for an Official Agent, even if its audience is small.

You do not need all of these capabilities to justify a request. A single requirement that goes beyond what your Personal Agent supports can be enough. Sharing alone does not make an agent Official. You do not need to know the technical terms to make a request; describe what the assistant should do.

What additional capabilities can an Official Agent provide?

Official Agents can support more than custom instructions and uploaded documents. Depending on the configuration, they can use:

• Agentic handoff: involve another agent with a specialized purpose to handle part of a request. For example, a general support assistant could involve a specialist agent for a particular topic.
• Skills: reusable guidance or procedures for carrying out a defined task. Include the Skill or process you need in your request so the Purple Team can confirm how it can be supported.
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) connections: connections that let an agent use tools or retrieve information from another system. What the agent can read or do depends on the tools and permissions configured for that connection.
• Application programming interfaces (APIs): configured integrations for exchanging information with other applications or supporting a workflow.
• Enterprise File Libraries: shared document collections with finer controls over the library and its files. This supports use cases that need more control over reference content than basic uploads to a Personal Agent provide. Describe your library management and access requirements in the request.
• Central administration: managed audience access, editor permissions, organizational guidance, and branding.

These capabilities are configured for each agent; they are not automatically enabled on every Official Agent. The Purple Team can confirm availability, required connections, and permissions for your use case.

Who creates and maintains an Official Agent?

Request an Official Agent through the Purple Team. Administrators configure its access and assign the roles permitted to edit and manage it. Access to chat with an agent does not automatically include permission to change it.

An Official Agent can be restricted to its intended audience; it does not have to be available to everyone. Users with access can chat with it, pin it for quick access, and return to saved chat history.

Official status means the agent is managed for its intended use. It does not guarantee that every answer is correct. Review important answers against the source information.

How do I request an Official Agent?

Submit an agent request form to the Purple Team. To help explain your needs, include:

• The problem: what people need help with, including a few example questions or tasks.
• The audience: who should use the agent and any access restrictions.
• The information: the documents, Enterprise File Libraries, websites, or business systems it would need, including any required controls over the library and its files.
• The capabilities: any agent handoff, Skills, MCP connections, or other integrations you need. If you are unsure, describe the steps the assistant should perform.
• The contact: who can explain the requirements and help keep the guidance current.
• Any prototype: a link to an existing Personal Agent, if you have one.

If you have tested the idea with a Personal Agent, note what worked and what fell short. If you skipped that step because your use case needs capabilities a Personal Agent does not support, describe the business need and those requirements.