> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cntillion.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Manage an AI agent in plain language

> Mastermind answers from real conversations, audits every agent in your workspace and applies requested edits with Undo. Ask it about your agent.

Mastermind is the assistant you use to manage an AI agent in plain language. Ask
how the agent is doing, what customers ask about or what it could not answer,
and it answers from the agent's real conversations, knowledge and settings. Ask
it to change something, and reversible edits apply with an Undo button. Ask how
to do something in Centillion, and it takes you to the right page and points at
what to click. Creating an agent, deleting an action, running tests and changing
live traffic wait for review.

![Mastermind page greeting the user, with the agent's 30-day conversation count, the message box and grouped suggestions](https://mintcdn.com/centillion/kEXLnfRfvkqMwpDm/images/agents/mastermind-01-home.webp?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=kEXLnfRfvkqMwpDm\&q=85\&s=b1169383126a0922eb7f38b842a6fa20)

The Mastermind page for one agent: its conversations in the last 30 days, the message box and suggestions.

## What it does

* Answers questions about one agent, or across every agent in the workspace,
  from real data. It reads whole conversations when a question needs them, and
  says how many it read. Conversation analysis looks back at most 180 days.
* Shows you around Centillion: it checks the help pages, opens the right page,
  reads what is on it and highlights the next thing to click.
* Drafts changes to instructions, guardrails, model, data sources, the chat
  widget, actions, tests, procedures and evaluation criteria. Requested
  reversible changes apply directly and offer Undo.
* Audits your agents and a knowledge base, read-only, and says what to fix
  first.
* Builds agents from a few questions about purpose and audience, including
  emotional delivery, voice, greetings, languages and channel behavior.
* Allows each teammate 10 to 300 messages a day depending on the plan, and does
  not use your workspace's credits.

## What you need

Mastermind is on every plan. Owners and Members can approve changes. Viewers can
ask Mastermind about the agent, but it does not propose changes for them. Support
Associates do not get Mastermind. See [workspace roles](https://cntillion.com/docs/workspaces/members.md). If
you are new to the product, start with [what Centillion is](https://cntillion.com/docs/introduction.md).

## Set it up

**1. Open Mastermind**

Open **Mastermind** at the top of your agent's sidebar, or click
**Mastermind** in the bar at the top of any agent page. The workspace
sidebar has its own **Mastermind**, for questions across every agent.

**2. Tell it about the agent**

Open **Memory** and choose **Set up with Mastermind**, or type `/setup`.
Mastermind asks about the agent's purpose, customers and tone, one question
at a time, then proposes what to remember.

**3. Ask your first question**

Type a question, pick a suggestion under the message box, or type **@** to
point at a specific source, action or conversation.

## Use it every day

### Where Mastermind opens

From another agent page, Mastermind opens beside the page, with the agent's name
beneath the chat title. The **Viewing** row names the page Mastermind is using
for context, so "which of these sources are out of date?" on Data sources means
those sources. The sidebar folds to icons to make room and unfolds when you close
Mastermind. **Full screen** continues the same chat on the Mastermind page
and keeps your selected branch.

On the Agent page, **Build with Mastermind** helps configure the agent. It saves
your latest edits before starting the chat, and so does **Generate**.

If a request fails, your message stays in the chat. Choose **Try again** to
retry it. If Mastermind already started an answer, choose **Continue** to
resume from its last step.

On workspace pages, the same button opens a workspace chat. It reads across
every agent: conversations and unanswered questions, sources, credits, the
helpdesk and channels. A workspace chat can create a new agent and write your
workspace conventions or your preferences, which always wait for your approval.
To change an existing agent, it gives you a link to that agent's Mastermind,
where its changes are made.

A chat under way stays open when you move between an agent's pages and workspace
pages, and the header keeps naming the agent or workspace it belongs to. **New
chat** starts one for the page you are on.

You can also ask from anywhere else in the dashboard:

| Where | What happens |
| - | - |
| Press **⌘K** or **Ctrl+K**, type a question and choose **Ask** | Starts a chat with your question. With nothing typed, it offers questions about the page you have open. |
| **Fix with Mastermind** on a failed test | Explains why it failed, or suggests fixes grouped by cause. |
| **Debug why this test failed** on a test result | Answers your own question about that test, after reading its latest results. |
| **Troubleshoot** on an error message | Asks Mastermind what went wrong, with the error it showed you. |
| **Analyze** on a message in a conversation | Explains why the agent answered that way. |
| **Discuss with Mastermind** on a ticket in the workspace inbox | Reads the conversation behind the ticket and suggests a fix for the agent. |
| **Analyze** and **Set up with Mastermind** on Pulse | Reviews the period's performance, or suggests evaluation criteria. |
| **Complete with Mastermind** on the deployment checklist | Asks for help with that step. |
| **Draft with Mastermind** on Procedures | Writes a new procedure. |
| **Build with Mastermind** on the Agent page | Helps configure the agent. |

### What you can ask

| Area | For example |
| - | - |
| Insights | "How many conversations did we have this week, by channel?" "What did customers ask about most this month?" "Chart conversations per day." |
| Credits | "How many credits did the agent use this month, and on which models?" "How much of our plan is left?" |
| Knowledge gaps | "What couldn't the agent answer in the last 30 days?" "Draft Q\&A answers for those questions." |
| Knowledge Base | "Audit my knowledge base for stale or missing information." "Which data sources aren't trained?" "Add our help center as a source." "Fix the return window in the Returns Q\&A." |
| Behavior | "Use an empathetic tone when customers are worried." "Enable expressive speech with warmly and patiently tags." "Keep SMS concise and email thorough." |
| Voice | "Choose a voice from our library and greet callers warmly." "Allow callers to interrupt the first message." |
| Chat widget | "Make the widget dark with our brand color #AA3300." "Change the greeting to two lines." |
| Actions | "Which actions are switched off?" "Use the refund action only for orders under 30 days." "Add web search for our status page." "Delete the old lead form." |
| Channels and integrations | "Is HubSpot still syncing?" "Which channels are failing?" "Take me to connect WhatsApp." |
| Helpdesk | "Which open tickets need a person first?" "Show Dana's open urgent tickets." "Who has room for more tickets?" "How fast did we respond this month?" |
| New agents | "Create a sales agent for our pricing page." |
| Workspace audit | "Which agents need attention because they have no knowledge, guardrails or tests?" |
| Tests and workflows | "Create and run a refund-policy test." "Edit the cancellation procedure." "Create a custom API action." |
| Releases and evaluations | "Which version is deployed?" "Add a criterion for successful issue resolution." |

Type **@**, or choose **Reference something** under **+** in the message box, to
point at something specific: a data source, an action, a recent conversation, a
contact, a connected channel, a test, a procedure or another agent. Choose it from
the menu, and Mastermind reads exactly that item. In a workspace chat, **@** points
at an agent or an integration. Press **Shift+Enter** to add a new line to your
message, and hold **⌘.** or **Ctrl+.** to dictate where your browser supports it.

An agent chat can also inspect other agents in the workspace for comparisons and
audits. Changes apply to the agent open in the chat; to change another agent,
follow its Mastermind link in the audit. Helpdesk reads do not change tickets or
message customers.

### Get help with Centillion

Ask how to do something, or where something is, and Mastermind takes you there.
It checks the [help pages](https://cntillion.com/docs/introduction.md), opens the page beside the chat, reads
what is on it, such as your plan or what is already set up, and puts a ring around
the next control.

Mastermind can act on the page only in ways that can't change anything by
themselves:

* It reads the page and highlights a control. If it can't find the control, it
  says so and describes where to look.
* It can type values you gave it into a text field, so you only review and save.
  It never submits a form, and never fills in a password, key or card number.
* It can open a tab, a link, a menu or a dialog. It never clicks anything that
  saves, sends, publishes, pays, invites or deletes.

In **Plan first**, it only reads and highlights.

### Start from a suggestion

On a new chat's Mastermind page, the suggestions under the message box are
grouped. For one agent the groups are **Agent**, **Insights**, **Knowledge
Base**, **Tests**, **Actions**, **Helpdesk** and **Channels**. On the workspace
page they are **Agents**, **Insights**, **Helpdesk**, **Channels** and
**Knowledge Base**, followed by **Jump back in** with the agents that had the
latest conversations.

Hover over a group to see its suggestions, or click it to keep them open, and
hover over a suggestion to preview it in the message box. Choosing one sends it. A suggestion with a blank
to fill in, such as "Switch off the action called \[action name]", goes to the
message box instead, with the blank selected so you can type over it.

In the panel beside a page, a new chat offers questions under **Try asking**
about the page you have open, such as "Which of these sources are out of date
or failed?" on Data sources. Choosing one sends it. On workspace pages the
questions cover every agent, such as "Which agent needs attention first?"

### Audits

**Audit my agents**, under **Agents** on the workspace Mastermind page, checks
every agent in your workspace for missing instructions, guardrails, knowledge
sources and tests, plus import and channel connection problems. It checks
whether configuration exists; it does not run tests or prove that guardrails
work. Each agent has a link to its own Mastermind for further review.

**Audit my knowledge base**, under **Knowledge Base**, reviews the current
agent's sources, distinguishes failed or incomplete imports from sources
awaiting import or training, and looks for gaps in customer questions from the
last 30 days. An old update date is a reason to review a source, not proof its
facts are wrong. If there are no sources or conversations, Mastermind says what
it cannot check.

Both audits are read-only. Choose a
suggested next step before Mastermind proposes a fix.

**Add a knowledge source** opens Data sources and keeps the same chat beside it.
Mastermind asks what you want to add, checks for an existing source and guides
you through the next step. Upload documents with **Add files** on Data sources;
the chat does not accept attachments. For Notion, use **Add Notion pages** there.
A saved source may still need importing or training before the agent can use
it. See [adding knowledge](https://cntillion.com/docs/agents/knowledge.md).

### Deployment checklist

An agent's Mastermind page lists what the agent should have before it goes live,
such as guardrails, trained knowledge, tests, evaluations and a way to hand over
to a person. Each row is read from the agent's real setup. Choose **Complete with
Mastermind** on a row to get help with it, or **Mark as done** if it doesn't apply
to this agent.

### How Mastermind works with you

* **It asks before it guesses.** When a request is open-ended, Mastermind asks
  one question at a time and offers likely answers as buttons. Click one, or type
  your own.
* **It takes you there.** When the next step happens on a page, such as
  connecting a channel or building an action, Mastermind opens that page and
  stays open beside it, saying what to do. It doesn't ask first, because opening
  a page changes nothing. From the Mastermind page, the chat moves to the panel
  beside the page it opened.
* **It says what it's doing.** Mastermind narrates each step as it works, such as
  "I'm reading the agent's data sources", and ends with what it found or changed
  and what comes next. Each step is a line under the message, such as **Read the
  agent's settings**; a step that failed says so and opens to what went wrong.
  **Thought for 3s** opens what it thought before answering.
* **It shows its plan.** For longer work, such as a review or an investigation, a
  todo list above the message box ticks off each step. Fold it away or close it.
* **It draws the numbers.** Mastermind can answer with headline numbers and line,
  bar, area or pie charts drawn from your agent's data. **Show as table** under a
  chart lists every value.
* **It knows the agent and the page.** Each chat starts with a short summary of
  the agent: its model, this week's conversations, sources, actions, channels and
  open tickets. Mastermind also reads the text of the page beside it, so you can
  ask about a value or chart you're looking at.

### Changes and Undo

Ask for a change directly. Mastermind reads the current configuration and
handles the change according to the mode beside the **+** in the message box. Press
**Shift+Tab** in the message box to move between them. Your choice is remembered
in this browser.

| Mode | What Mastermind does |
| - | - |
| **Edit with Undo** | Applies reversible changes you ask for and shows what changed with **Undo**. |
| **Ask first** | Shows every change and waits for you to approve it. |
| **Plan first** | Only reads, then writes a plan for you to approve or send back. Nothing changes until you approve it. |

**Changes from this chat**, above the message box, lists every change and where
it stands. Choose one to jump to its card. In every mode, creating an agent,
deleting an action, running tests and changing the traffic split require **Approve
and apply**. Mastermind can only do what your role allows.

### Review changes

A card under Mastermind's answer shows each change:

* **Instructions and guardrails** as a diff, with the removed and added lines.
  **Side by side** shows the whole text before and after.
* **Model and temperature** as a before-and-after table.
* **Data sources** to add or remove, with their text and questions, and edits to
  a text or Q\&A source as a diff.
* **Chat widget** settings, such as colors, theme and greeting, before and after.
* **Actions** to switch on or off, when an action is used, web search to add, or
  an action to delete.
* **What Mastermind remembers** about the agent, and **your preferences**, as a
  diff.
* **Behavior and voice**, including emotion tags with usage descriptions,
  timezone, languages, channel settings, voice selection and first-message
  interruption behavior.
* **A new agent**, with its instructions, guardrails and requested behavior
  and voice configuration.
* **Tests, procedures, custom actions and evaluation criteria**, with their
  proposed configuration. Saved action credentials stay masked.

Test runs always require approval. They use the test allowance unless the
proposal explicitly requests permission to use regular message credits. Runs
cannot be undone. Published conversations keep the evaluation criteria saved in
their version. Disabling one in your draft changes new conversations after you
publish. See [releases and workflows](https://cntillion.com/docs/agents/releases-and-workflows.md).

For a change waiting for review, **Approve and apply** saves it immediately, and **Reject**
records your rejection immediately. For a batch, use **Select** or **Skip** on
each change, or **Select all**, then choose **Approve and apply** with the
selected count. Only selected changes apply. **Reject all** records rejection of
the entire proposal immediately. Changes go through the same checks as saving
them yourself, such as your plan's storage limit. A change to what the agent
knows retrains it.

Configuration changes save to your selected branch draft, and the card says so.
Customers see them once you publish. **Review and publish** on the card, or asking
Mastermind what would go live, opens the same **Publish** dialog as the bar above
the page. Mastermind never publishes or merges for you. Settings shared by all
branches require Main.

### Branches, proposals and traffic

Ask Mastermind to work on a branch, with `/branch`, and nothing reaches customers
while you try the change. Once it is published there, Mastermind can open a merge
proposal with a summary, the tests that ran, and what to check, for a teammate to
review. See [releases and workflows](https://cntillion.com/docs/agents/releases-and-workflows.md).

To try a change on real conversations, use `/experiment` or ask to send a share of
traffic to the branch. The card shows the whole split before and after, and it
always waits for your approval because it reaches live customers. **Undo** puts
the split back.

After changes apply or are undone, **Changes from this chat** and the page
update. An open Instructions editor keeps your unsaved fields while showing new
saved values elsewhere; review your draft before saving it.

If someone edited the same setting after Mastermind drafted the change, the
change is not applied and the card says so; ask again so Mastermind starts from
the current version. A newer proposal in the same chat replaces one you have not
decided yet.

**Undo** on an applied card puts the changes back: settings return to what they
were, added sources are removed, removed sources come back, actions switch back,
and added web search is removed. A setting edited again since is left as it is.
Deleting an action and creating an agent can't be undone, and the card says so
before you approve them.

### Create an agent with Mastermind

Choose **Agents → Create a new agent** on the workspace Mastermind page, ask
Mastermind for one, or type `/generate`. It asks a couple of quick questions
about the agent's purpose and audience, one at a time. It skips details you
already supplied, offers tone defaults and accepts that there may be no website.
After asking about any essential missing boundaries, it sums up the plan and
proposes the agent with its instructions, guardrails and requested behavior,
voice, greeting and languages. Voice choices come from your voice library.

Choose **Approve and apply** to create the agent and open it. Mastermind walks
you through what it built and suggests the next steps, such as adding knowledge,
connecting a channel and testing it in the Playground.

### Commands

Type **/** at the start of a message to see the commands, and keep typing to narrow
them down. In a workspace chat the list shows the ones that apply across agents.

| Command | What it does |
| - | - |
| `/start` | Where this agent stands and what to do first. |
| `/setup` | Mastermind asks about this agent's purpose, customers and tone, then saves what it learned. |
| `/generate` | Build a new agent with Mastermind. |
| `/remember` | Save a fact for future chats, such as `/remember we only ship to the EU`, or a preference about how you like to work. |
| `/test` | Explain the agent's failing simulation tests and propose fixes. |
| `/explain` | Explain the page you have open, or what you name. |
| `/review` | Review the agent's whole setup and list issues by severity, with fixes. |
| `/optimize` | Find improvements from real conversations. |
| `/debug` | Find out why something went wrong, such as an answer in a conversation you reference with **@**. |
| `/dashboard` | Headline numbers and charts for the last 30 days. |
| `/weekly` | This week's report against last week. |
| `/branch` | Make a branch to work on without touching what's live. |
| `/experiment` | Try a change on a share of live conversations. |
| `/rollback` | Undo the latest changes applied in this chat. |
| `/feedback` | Tell us how the last answer went. |
| `/clear` | Start a new chat. |

Rate any answer with the thumbs under it. Thumbs down asks what went wrong.

### Customize Mastermind

Open **Workspace settings → Mastermind**, or **Customize** on the Mastermind page.
None of this changes how your agents reply.

* **Agent context** lists each agent and whether Mastermind knows its purpose,
  customers and rules. **Set up** starts a short interview.
* **Organization** holds conventions for everyone in the workspace, such as naming
  or what every change needs before it goes live. Mastermind follows them in every
  chat. Only workspace owners can change them.
* **Your preferences** are how you like Mastermind to work with you, for every
  agent. Only you see them.
* **Prompt library** keeps prompts you use often. They are private until you turn
  on **Share with the workspace**. **Run** starts a chat with one, and **Use a saved
  prompt** under **+** in the message box puts it in your message.

### What Mastermind remembers

Mastermind reads two notes at the start of every agent chat, so you don't repeat
yourself:

* **This agent**: what it is for, who its customers are, its tone and the rules
  you work by. Everyone in the workspace shares it.
* **Your preferences**: how you like Mastermind to work with you, such as how to
  explain changes or when to ask first. They apply to every agent, and only you
  see them.

A workspace chat reads only your preferences. Open **Memory** in the panel or on
the Mastermind page to read and edit the notes, or choose **Set up with
Mastermind** and it asks you. Mastermind can also offer to update either note
during a chat. Requested edits apply with Undo like other reversible changes. Neither changes how
your agent replies to customers.

### History

Click the clock in the panel, or **History** on the Mastermind page, to see your
earlier chats in this workspace and continue one. Each chat is labeled with its
agent, or **Workspace** for a workspace chat, and a chat about another agent
opens on that agent's Mastermind. Each teammate sees their own chats.

## Limits and good to know

Each teammate can send Mastermind a number of messages a day, depending on the
workspace's plan. The count resets at midnight UTC. When you are down to the last
fifth of the day's allowance, or the last three messages, the message box shows
how many are left. Approving, rejecting and undoing do not count, and Mastermind
does not use your workspace's credits.

| Plan | Messages a day |
| - | - |
| Free | 10 |
| Hobby | 25 |
| Standard | 50 |
| Pro | 150 |
| Enterprise | 300 |

You can also send up to 10 messages a minute. Other limits:

* Conversation analysis covers at most the last 180 days.
* The chat does not accept file attachments; upload documents on Data sources.
* Audits check that configuration exists. They do not run tests or prove that
  guardrails work.
* A workspace chat only creates agents. Changes to an existing agent happen in
  that agent's Mastermind.

## Questions

### Does Mastermind change my agent without asking?

Requested reversible changes apply right away with **Undo**. Read-only questions
and audits do not authorize edits. Ask for a review or a plan first when needed.
Test runs, deleting an action and creating an agent still wait for your review.

### Does Mastermind use my message credits?

No. Each teammate has a daily message allowance set by the plan, from 10 on Free
to 300 on Enterprise. Test runs it starts use the test allowance unless you allow
message credits.

### Can Mastermind look at all my agents at once?

Yes. Open **Mastermind** from the workspace sidebar for a workspace chat, or ask
an agent chat to audit or compare agents. Changes to an agent still happen in
that agent's own chat.

### Who can approve Mastermind's changes?

Owners and Members. Viewers can ask questions, but Mastermind does not propose
changes for them, and Support Associates do not have Mastermind.

### Can I upload a file in the chat?

No. Use **Add files** on Data sources, and Mastermind keeps the chat open beside
the page while you do.

### What happens if a teammate edited the same setting?

The change is not applied, and the card says so. Ask again so Mastermind drafts
the change from the current version.

### Does what Mastermind remembers change how my agent replies?

No. The agent note and your preferences guide Mastermind only. The agent's
replies come from its instructions, knowledge and settings.

## Try it

Open Mastermind on one agent and ask what it could not answer in the last 30
days. When a question needs a person, a person takes over from the [helpdesk
inbox](https://cntillion.com/docs/helpdesk.md).

> [card] [Start free](https://app.cntillion.com/sign-up?utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=article\&utm_campaign=agents-mastermind)
>
> Start on the Free plan, or take a seven-day trial of a paid plan. Your agent is live on your site in an afternoon.

> [card] [Book a demo](https://cal.com/patrick-turricelli-smgfks/15min?utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=article\&utm_campaign=agents-mastermind)
>
> Fifteen minutes with the team, on your own use case.

Or ask the assistant on this page.

## Related

> [card] [What Centillion is](https://cntillion.com/docs/introduction.md)
>
> How the agent, its knowledge and its channels fit together.

> [card] [Tests](https://cntillion.com/docs/agents/tests.md)
>
> Simulate customer conversations and score them with a judge.

> [card] [Adding knowledge](https://cntillion.com/docs/agents/knowledge.md)
>
> Train the agent on your website, documents and Notion pages.


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