Sub-agents

Sub-agents are agents with a Sub-Agent interface configured in Agent Studio that Airia Agent can invoke when a user’s request is best handled by a specialized agent. See Extending Airia Agent for guidance on when to use sub-agents versus tools.

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Prerequisites

The agent you want to add must be:

1. Built and tested in Agent Studio
2. Configured with a Sub-Agent interface — agents without this interface do not appear in the sub-agent picker

Publishing the agent to the Airia Catalog is not required — the Sub-Agent interface is independent of Catalog and Chat, and the agent can even be in Draft status. If the agent doesn’t have this interface yet, open it in Agent Studio, go to the Interfaces tab, click Add Interface, and select Sub-Agent. Give it a name and description, optionally restrict access to specific users or groups, and save.

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Add a sub-agent

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Remove a sub-agent

1. In the Sub-agents tab, find the agent in the Configured Sub-agents list
2. Click the remove icon (or deselect the agent in the picker)
3. Click Save

Removing a sub-agent does not affect the underlying catalog agent — it remains published and accessible directly in the catalog.

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How delegation works

At runtime, Airia Agent evaluates each user message against all configured tools and sub-agents. When it identifies that a request falls within a sub-agent’s domain, it invokes the sub-agent and incorporates the response into its reply. Sub-agents run with their own:

• System prompt — the instructions you wrote when building the agent
• Tools — any tools the sub-agent is configured with
• Knowledge — any data sources or context the sub-agent has access to

This means the sub-agent’s behavior is self-contained. Configuring a sub-agent in Airia Agent does not change how it behaves when users access it directly from the catalog.