The agent team
Manager
Coordinator and decision-maker. Every task starts here.
Planner
Breaks complex tasks into concrete, grounded steps.
Researcher
Deep-dives on a topic and produces structured findings.
Builder
Writes and edits vault content — notes, folders, and patches.
Critic
Quality gate. Reviews Builder output before the task closes.
Agent roles in detail
Manager
The Manager reads your prompt and decides which agent should act next. It is the only agent that sees every step of the pipeline — it receives results from each agent and uses them to determine the next move. When the task is complete, the Manager signals the pipeline to close. The Manager’s behavior is tuned by the AI mode you select before sending your prompt. Switching modes changes the Manager’s instruction set, which cascades through every agent involved in that task.Planner
The Planner breaks down complex requests into a concrete, ordered list of steps. Before producing a plan, it reads your current vault structure so its output is grounded in what actually exists — folder names, note paths, existing links — rather than assumptions. For tasks that reference a specific note by name, the Planner also receives that note’s outgoing links, backlinks, and tags so it can plan with full relational context.Researcher
The Researcher performs a deep investigation on a topic using the context you provide (your prompt, attached files, or pasted text). It produces structured findings that the Builder can turn directly into vault notes. The Researcher is engaged for tasks that require gathering, synthesizing, or verifying information before anything is written.Builder
The Builder writes and edits your vault. It is the only agent that makes changes to files on disk. It uses a set of structured directives to signal what to create or modify:| Directive | What it does |
|---|---|
# vault_file: <path> | Creates or overwrites a markdown note |
# vault_folder: <path> | Creates a folder |
# vault_asset: <path> | Creates a non-markdown file (CSV, JSON, etc.) |
# patch_vault_file: <path> | Applies a surgical patch to an existing note |
# delete_vault_file: <path> | Deletes a note from the vault |
Critic
The Critic reviews the Builder’s output for accuracy, completeness, and formatting before the task closes. If the work meets the standard, the Critic signalsCRITIC_APPROVED and the pipeline ends. If it finds issues, it sends detailed feedback back through the Manager to the Builder for revision.
The Critic is a quality gate, not a final editor — it does not modify files itself.