Creating a Digital Employee

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Overview

A Digital Employee is an autonomous agent that runs work for your team. In Cowork you can create one in two ways:

1. /hire in the Omnibar — describe the role in natural language; Tess configures the employee for you (fastest).
2. Hire → Open position — the full Hire form where you set identity, work instructions, Work Mode, Work Cycle, and Advanced settings yourself.

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Prerequisites

• You are in Cowork (Mesh Canvas)
• Your workspace has credits to run employees
• You can hire Digital Employees in this workspace

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Option A — /hire (Omnibar)

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Step 1: Start the command

Click the Omnibar at the bottom of the canvas, type /hire, then describe the role — for example: /hire someone to monitor competitor pricing weekly.

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Step 2: Watch recruiting progress

After you submit, Cowork shows a short recruiting animation while the employee is configured. You cannot edit fields during this sequence.

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Step 3: Employee appears and first run starts

When configuration succeeds, the new employee node appears on the Mesh and the first run usually starts. In Supervised / plan-based modes, you may need to approve the first plan in the drawer before real work continues. If hiring cannot finish confidently, you see a warning instead of a new node — rephrase with clearer tasks, cadence, and constraints.

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What /hire typically sets

/hire does not attach knowledge-base documents you did not imply.

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Option B — Full Hire form (Open position)

1. Click Hire → Open position (or double-click empty canvas when that shortcut is available).
2. Fill Identity (avatar, name, voice, optional Goal).
3. Write Work instructions (optional Improve with AI / Add Document; connectors when shown).
4. Choose Work Mode (Supervised vs Autonomous) and action approval behavior for connectors.
5. Set Work Cycle (Time / Day / Week / Month / Interval / None).
6. Expand Advanced settings if needed (personality, timezone, knowledge base, Single Agent / Multi Agent, model, tools, Credits/day, Credits/month, max consecutive failures).
7. Click Hire.

For field-by-field guidance later, see Detailed Configuration (same form in Edit Employee).

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After creation

1. Open the employee drawer for status, Goal, schedule badge, and timeline
2. Adjust schedule in Edit Employee → Work Cycle — see Work Cycle
3. Pause / resume / fire from the drawer — see Agent Lifecycle
4. Handle approvals in the drawer or run view — see Approvals & Interactions

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Tips

• Be specific about task, cadence, and constraints in /hire
• Prefer the full form when you need an exact model, files, or budget before the first run
• Review the first plan carefully in Supervised mode
• Set Credits/day or Credits/month if cost could grow quickly

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Next steps

• Work Cycle (schedule)
• Agent Lifecycle
• Approvals & Interactions