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Tutorial: Create a project

Lesson 1 of 6 – Create your first project in Agent Studio. This takes about 5 minutes, and the name you choose matters more than you’d think.

Lesson
Level 1 · Beginner · 5 min

set-up-project

Create the agent

1

Open the agent creation dialog

Select + Agent to open Create new agent.

2

Configure your agent settings

Fill out the fields carefully (these become your default baseline for all later testing):

Use a clear, descriptive name that won’t become misleading later.

Good examples:

  • Acme Support Agent
  • Webchat L1 Triage
  • Hotel Concierge (US)

Avoid:

  • Test
  • New agent
  • Names that explicitly reference an environment (Sandbox, Prod, Live)

Select the primary language/locale your users will interact in.

Pick a reasonable starter voice. You can always change this later.

Keep it short and broadly reusable.

  • Aim for one sentence that works for both chat and voice
  • Example: Hi–how can I help today?
  • Avoid over-specific or wordy greetings

Treat this like a stable identifier. It appears in the project URL inside Agent Studio, with an environment suffix appended automatically. If you leave it blank, Agent Studio generates one for you.

Once set, the Project ID cannot be changed. Choose carefully – every bookmarked URL and API call will include this ID forever.

Allowed characters: alphanumerics and dashes only (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, -).

Examples:

  • my-shop-support-l1
  • hotel-concierge-us
If you expect multiple similar agents, build a predictable pattern now.
3

Create the agent

Select Create.

Check your understanding

  • The name appears in the live greeting, so a vague name sounds unprofessional to callers
  • Generic names cause confusion as you add environments and variants
  • The name is permanent and cannot be changed after the first publish
  • Agent Studio assigns the Project ID from the name, so a generic name creates a confusing URL

Answer: Generic names cause confusion as you add environments and variants

Generic names like ‘Test’ or ‘New agent’ become confusing when you have multiple agents in your account. Use a clear, descriptive name from the start – something like ‘Hotel Concierge (US)’ stays meaningful as you scale.

Confirm the baseline workspace

After creation, you land in the Knowledge area – empty state with an Add topic button.

Agent Studio interface

Left sidebar

Navigation for all agent configuration areas (Manage, Build, Channels, Configure, Analytics)

Center canvas

Main workspace where you edit topics, functions, flows, and view analytics

Right sidebar

Context-sensitive tools like chat testing, call testing, and version history

The right sidebar toggles open/closed for quick access to testing tools.

  • The header shows the agent name and language.
  • The agent is in Draft state.

Use the left navigation to check you can access:

Behavior

  • General: personality, role, and Behavior rules.

Knowledge

  • Later, you’ll learn to create simple FAQ, SMS/handoff topics, and multiturn topics here (using the FAQs and Sources tabs).
  • Variants: where you’ll configure variants later (even if you ignore it for now, confirm it opens).

Voice

  • Agent (voice/disclaimer selection) and Advanced > Call settings (greeting, disclaimer text, and channel-specific settings).

Deployments

  • Where you’ll test and promote changes safely (Sandbox → Pre-release → Live, depending on your setup).
  • You may also see other areas (Numbers under Voice, Account, Real-time config, Custom Dashboards). You won’t need to configure them for Level 1, but you may return to them later.

Verify

set-up-project-complete

Success criteria:

  • The project loads without errors and stays stable across page changes.
  • You can access (at minimum):
    • Behavior > General (personality, role, Behavior)
    • Knowledge
    • Knowledge > Variants
    • Voice > Settings
    • Deployments
  • The Knowledge page shows an empty state with a clear call to action (for example, Add topic), indicating you’re ready for the next steps in the checklist.

Check your understanding

  • Acme Support Agent
  • Linden Hotel Concierge
  • Hotel Concierge (US) – Live
  • Webchat L1 Triage

Answer: Hotel Concierge (US) – Live

Including an environment name like ‘Live’ in the project name is a problem – the same project runs across Sandbox, Pre-release, and Live. A name tied to one environment becomes misleading in the others.

Try it yourself

1

Challenge: Name your agent

You’re building a hotel concierge agent for “The Linden Hotel”. Write out:

  1. A project name
  2. A project ID
  3. A one-sentence greeting

The project name should be descriptive but not reference an environment. The project ID should be stable and URL-friendly (lowercase, hyphens). The greeting should work for both chat and voice.

Project name: Linden Hotel Concierge

Project ID: linden-hotel-concierge

Greeting: Hi, welcome to The Linden Hotel – how can I help you today?

Check your understanding

  • The agent will stop working because ‘test-1’ is a reserved name
  • The Project ID is embedded in the URL – a vague ID like ‘test-1’ makes it hard to tell which agent a URL points to
  • You’ll need to re-authenticate every time you open the project
  • The ID will conflict with the environment name and block promotions

Answer: The Project ID is embedded in the URL – a vague ID like ‘test-1’ makes it hard to tell which agent a URL points to

The Project ID determines the project’s URL inside Agent Studio and cannot be changed once set. A vague ID like ‘test-1’ becomes confusing when you have multiple agents – every bookmarked URL looks meaningless and you can’t rename it later. Choose a descriptive, stable ID from the start (e.g., ‘linden-hotel-concierge’).

Try it

Project IDs must be URL-friendly. In an ID like “linden-hotel-concierge”, words are separated by _____.

Answer: hyphens, hyphen, -

Go deeper

Want more detail on any of the concepts in this lesson? These reference pages cover the same features in depth:

Agent Studio overview

Capabilities overview and UI walkthrough

Quickstart

The shortest path from account creation to a deployed agent

← Back to Level 1

Level overview

Next: Edit agent behavior →

Lesson 2 – give your agent a personality