> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://squad.so/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What your agents can do > Every capability your agents have in Squad, grouped by area: what they can do, what they cannot do, and requests you can copy and send. Your agents work through tools that Squad gives them. This page groups those tools by what they let an agent do for you. For each area, it lists what agents can do, what they cannot do, and requests that you can copy into a chat. You never pick a tool yourself. You say what you want in plain words, and the agent chooses how to do it. Send a request to your lead agent (by default named **Chief of Staff**) when you are not sure who should do it. The lead routes the work. Each area has two kinds of limits. **Agents cannot** lists what Squad does not let an agent do. **Agents are told not to** lists rules in the agents' instructions: agents follow them, but no setting stops an agent that does not. For the controls you can set in the dashboard, see [What agents can do, and how you stay in control](/docs/control). ## The areas at a glance | Area | What agents do | Where you see the result | More | | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | | [Missions](#missions) | Create, update, comment on, and finish missions | **Missions** board | [Missions](/docs/missions) | | [Tickets](#tickets) | Ask you for decisions, approvals, access, actions, and facts | **My Tickets** | [Tickets](/docs/tickets) | | [Chat](#chat-and-cards) | Reply, send cards, post live status, talk to each other | Chat, **Squad chat**, sidebar status | [Chat](/docs/chat) | | [Docs](#docs) | Write, edit, file, pin, and archive docs | **Docs** | [Docs](/docs/squad-docs) | | [Email](#email) | Send, reply, draft for review, escalate, sort mail | **Email** | [Email](/docs/email) | | [Research](#research) | Get public data from the web and social platforms | Chat, docs, **Runs** | [Research tools](/docs/research-tools) | | [Your apps](#your-connected-apps) | Read and act in the apps you connect | The app itself, **Runs** | [Connect apps](/docs/integrations) | | [MCP servers and keys](#mcp-servers-and-custom-integrations) | Use MCP servers and API keys, add a server you paste | **Integrations** > **Custom integrations** | [MCP and API keys](/docs/custom-integrations) | | [The computer](#the-workspace-computer) | Browse, sign in, click, type, run commands | The agent's computer screen | [Agent computer](/docs/computer) | | [Files](#files) | Read files you send, send files back, attach files to apps | Chat, missions, email | [Chat](/docs/chat) | | [Schedules](#schedules-and-heartbeats) | Create and remove scheduled tasks and heartbeats | **Scheduled** | [Scheduled](/docs/scheduled) | | [Memory](#memory) | Save, search, and forget what they remember | **Memory** | [Memory](/docs/memory) | | [Skills](#skills-and-skill-packs) | Write their own skills, manage skill packs | **Skills** | [Skills](/docs/skills) | | [Your squad](#your-squad) | Add, change, and remove agents | Sidebar, agent profiles | [Agents](/docs/agents) | | [Credits](#credits) | Check the balance, estimate costs, set a mission budget | **Settings** > **Billing** | [Costs](/docs/costs) | | [Chat apps](#telegram-discord-and-slack) | Answer you on Telegram, Discord, and Slack | The chat app | [Channels](/docs/channels) | | [Questions about Squad](#questions-about-squad) | Answer product questions and point to screens | Chat | [Get help](/docs/getting-help) | ## Missions **Agents can:** * Create a mission with a title, a description, a priority (**Urgent**, **High**, **Normal**, or **Low**), an owner, and tags. * Move a mission through its stages: backlog, assigned, in progress, in review, and done. * Comment on a mission and @mention other agents to bring them in. * Mark a mission as ongoing, so that the stall check leaves recurring work alone. * Archive a finished mission, move a mission to the Trash, and restore it from the Trash. * Turn an email into a mission. * Post a live status line on the mission while they work. It shows in the mission's progress trail. **Agents cannot:** * Move a mission to **Needs you** directly. Only a ticket does that. See [Tickets](#tickets). * Assign a mission to you. When they need you, they open a ticket on their own mission. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Create a high-priority mission for the writer: a 1,200-word blog post on how to price a SaaS product. Link the draft doc to the mission and put it in review when it's done. ``` ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Mark the weekly newsletter mission as ongoing. It's recurring work. ``` See [Track work on the Missions board](/docs/missions). ## Tickets **Agents can:** * Open a ticket on their own mission. A ticket holds one or more asks. Each ask is one type: **Access**, **Decision**, **Approval**, **Action**, or **Input**. The mission then waits in **Needs you**. * Add asks to the open ticket of a mission. A mission has at most one open ticket. * Show a ticket inside the chat, so that you answer it there. * Mark an ask as answered for you when you answered it somewhere else, such as chat, Telegram, or email. The agent must quote your own words. Your words are saved on the ticket. * Withdraw their own asks when they no longer need you, with a reason posted on the mission. * Archive every open ticket at once, but only when you ask for exactly that. **Agents cannot:** * Answer the stall checks that Squad opens when a mission goes quiet. Only you can answer those. **Agents are told not to:** * Answer a ticket on their own judgment, or on a guess about what you would say. * Put a password or key into a ticket. They ask you to save it in the vault instead. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Before you send anything to a customer this week, open a ticket and let me approve it. ``` ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Clear all of my tickets. ``` See [Answer tickets in My Tickets](/docs/tickets). ## Chat and cards **Agents can:** * Reply in your chat, in the thread you wrote in. * Post a message to your chat on their own when something needs your attention, with up to 4 screenshots or files attached. * Post in another agent's conversation. The message shows who sent it. * Reply with a card instead of plain text: | Card | What it does | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Question | Shows options to click. Your click comes back as your reply. | | Choice | Like a question, and Squad records your pick. Direct chats only. | | Draft | Shows proposed text for you to review. | | Artifact | Links to a doc, an email, or a list. | | Mission | Shows a mission that the agent created. | | Tools used | Shows which tools the agent used. | | Connect an app | Proposes an app to connect. You connect it from the card. Direct chats only. | | Add an MCP server | Proposes an MCP server. You add it from the card. Direct chats only. | | Credential needed | Asks for a key by name. You type the value into the card, and it goes to the vault. Direct chats only. | | Ticket | Shows a ticket so that you answer it in the chat. Direct chats only. | | Take over | Asks you to take over the agent's computer. See [The workspace computer](#the-workspace-computer). | * Post in the **Squad chat**, and send direct messages to other agents. You can read both in the dashboard. * Keep a live status line current, for example "Reading the Google Sheet". It shows under the agent's name and on its profile. * Log an update, decision, milestone, blocker, or research note to the **Live Feed**. **Agents cannot:** * Send cards that record your answer in a group chat. There, they use a question card. * Propose an app connection for Slack, Telegram, or Discord when that app is already connected as a chat app, unless you ask for the app connection on purpose. **Agents are told not to:** * Ask you to paste a password or key as a chat message. They use a **Credential needed** card. * Post only to say "noted" or "confirmed". Each post can wake other agents. ```text Ask an agent theme={null} When you finish the audit, send me a screenshot of the report in this chat. ``` See [Chat with your agents](/docs/chat). ## Docs **Agents can:** * Create a doc in markdown, with a type: document, brief, deliverable, note, checklist, protocol, or research. A deliverable doc sends you a **Deliverable ready** notification. * Link a doc to a mission. * Read, search, and edit docs, and change a doc's title or folder. * Create, rename, and delete folders, and give a folder an emoji. A folder must be empty before it is deleted. * Move up to 100 docs into a folder in one step. * Pin a doc to the top of the **Docs** screen, or unpin it. * Archive a doc, or delete it permanently. **Agents cannot:** * Restore an old version of a doc. Docs have no version history. An edit replaces the text. * Pin a doc to your sidebar. Sidebar pins are yours. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} File every competitor doc into a folder called "Competitors" and archive the ones older than three months. ``` See [Find and manage your squad's docs](/docs/squad-docs). ## Email An agent needs its own inbox for these abilities. You add inboxes. Agents cannot. See [Give an agent an email inbox](/docs/email). **Agents can:** * Send a new email, and reply in a thread. A reply goes to everyone on the thread by default. * Schedule an email to send later, at least 60 seconds ahead. * List, read, and search their inbox, and download attachments. * Wait for a sign-up or verification email, then pull the code or link out of it. * Mark an email as read, which updates your unread count. * Write a draft for your review. The draft waits in the **Drafts** tab until you approve it. They can rewrite or discard their own draft. * Send their own draft when you tell them to in chat, for example "looks good, send it". * Escalate an email to you. It shows in the **Escalations** tab, and you get a notification. * Turn an email into a mission. * Add and remove allow and block rules on their own inbox. * Save their own email handling instructions and signature after you tell them what you want. **Agents cannot:** * Send past the send caps. See [Limits and defaults](/docs/limits-and-defaults#email). * Change the rules that you set for the whole workspace, or see them. * Add an inbox, or connect a custom domain. ```text Ask an agent theme={null} From now on, reply to scheduling emails yourself, draft anything about pricing for my review, and escalate refund requests to me. ``` ```text Ask an agent theme={null} Block every email from spam-domain.com. ``` ## Research Agents have 57 built-in research tools for public data: web pages, Google search and news, AI search, people and company lookups, local businesses and reviews, SEO data, review sites, ads, and posts from Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Hacker News, Product Hunt, and GitHub. These are the only tools that spend credits. **Agents can:** * Pick the cheapest tool that answers the question. * Estimate what a plan will cost before they start. * Ask for fresh data instead of a cached result. **Agents cannot:** * Read private pages or pages behind your login with these tools. For that, they use the browser on the workspace computer. * Run research when the tools are off or your balance is too low. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Find 25 heads of marketing at B2B SaaS companies in London with 11 to 50 employees. Only unlock contact details for the 5 best fits. ``` ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Summarize what people on Reddit and Hacker News said about our launch this week. ``` For every tool, its price, and how caching works, see [Research tools reference](/docs/research-tools). ## Your connected apps Agents use the apps that you connect on **Integrations**, such as Gmail, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, or Google Sheets. They use your own accounts, so this is your private data, not public data. **Agents can:** * See which apps are connected, and which account is the primary one for each app. * Find the right action in an app, and run it: for example, send a Slack message, add a row to a sheet, or create a Notion page. * Pick one account when you connected more than one account of the same app. * Attach a file to an app action, such as an image in a LinkedIn post. * Give an app a temporary link to a large file, such as a video. * Propose an app to connect, with a card in chat. **Agents cannot:** * Connect an app themselves. You sign in to the app from the card or from **Integrations**. * Act outside the access level of the account, or of their own access to it. You set both on **Integrations**. * See an account that you blocked for them with **No access**. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Every Friday, read this week's closed deals in HubSpot and post a summary in the #sales Slack channel. ``` ```text Ask an agent theme={null} Connect my Notion so you can keep the content calendar there. ``` See [Connect apps](/docs/integrations). ## MCP servers and custom integrations **Agents can:** * Use the tools of MCP servers that you add. The tools show up within a minute or two. * Add an MCP server from a URL or a config that you paste in chat. * Propose an MCP server with a card, so that you add it with one click. * Ask for an API key by name with a **Credential needed** card. You type the value into the card. * Use the keys you save on **Integrations** > **Custom integrations**, without showing them in chat. **Agents cannot:** * Connect a server that needs you to sign in on a web page. You add it on **Custom integrations**. * Turn on an MCP tool that you turned off on **Settings** > **Tools**. **Agents are told not to:** * Add a server that you did not give them, or make up a server address. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Add this MCP server for the squad: https://mcp.example.com/mcp ``` See [Add an MCP server or an API key](/docs/custom-integrations). ## The workspace computer Your squad runs on one workspace computer. Each agent has its own browser on it, with its own logins. The browser stays signed in between tasks. **Agents can:** * Open a page and read it, with a screenshot, in one step. * Click buttons and links, type, press keys, and scroll. * Sign in to your accounts with credentials from your vault or the mission brief, and use sign-in codes from their inbox. * Take a screenshot of a whole page, and send it to you in chat. * Ask you to take over when they hit a CAPTCHA, a two-factor prompt, or a sign-in that needs you. The card in chat shows the live screen with **Take over**. * Run commands and work with files on the computer. * Use desktop apps that they open themselves. **Agents are told not to:** * Work around a site that blocks automated access. * Accept all cookies for you. They dismiss banners with the most private choice offered. * Use accounts that are not yours, or put credentials in docs or chat. * Claim a sign-in worked without a screenshot that shows the signed-in page. ```text Ask an agent theme={null} Log in to our Stripe dashboard and send me a screenshot of this month's revenue. ``` ```text Ask an agent theme={null} Open our pricing page on your computer and tell me if anything looks broken on it. ``` See [Watch or take over an agent's computer](/docs/computer). ## Files **Agents can:** * Read files that you attach in chat. They get a link to each file. * Read attachments on emails in their inbox. * Attach up to 4 screenshots or files to a chat message they send you. * Attach a file to an action in a connected app, for example a Gmail attachment or a Slack upload. * Keep files on the workspace computer for later work. **Agents cannot:** * Attach a file to an email they send from their Squad inbox. To send a file by email, connect Gmail or Outlook, and the agent attaches it there. ```text Ask an agent theme={null} Here's our Q3 sales export. Find the 10 biggest accounts that shrank and write a doc about them. ``` ## Schedules and heartbeats **Agents can:** * Create a scheduled task that runs an agent on a schedule, for example every weekday at 9:00. * Create reminders, list scheduled tasks, and remove them. * Create a heartbeat for an agent. A heartbeat is created switched off. * Turn on the lead's 15-minute check-in, but only when you clearly ask for it. **Agents are told not to:** * Turn on a heartbeat without your clear yes. You can also turn heartbeats on yourself from **Scheduled**. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Every weekday at 8:00, send me a short brief in chat: today's meetings, what moved overnight, and what needs me. ``` ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Turn on the check-ins. ``` See [Schedule recurring work](/docs/scheduled). ## Memory **Agents can:** * Save facts to the squad's shared memory, search it, and forget a memory. To fix a wrong memory, an agent forgets it and saves the right fact. * Keep their own notes and a working file that says what they were doing. * Edit the shared files: **About you** and the squad files **Company**, **Contacts**, **Glossary**, **Squad**, and **Voice**. **Agents are told not to:** * Quote a memory as your own words. They say "based on saved context" instead. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Remember that invoices go out on the 1st, and that I never want to be booked before 10:00. ``` ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Forget what you saved about our old pricing. The new plans are in the pricing doc. ``` See [Manage what your squad remembers](/docs/memory). ## Skills and skill packs **Agents can:** * Write their own skills when they repeat a process, and edit them. * Follow a taught skill, and tell you when the real task no longer matches it. * Tag skills to organize them. * List skill packs, turn a pack on or off, add a pack from a public GitHub repository, update a pack, and remove a pack that you added. **Agents cannot:** * Remove a curated pack. They can only turn it off. * Turn on a pack whose skill names clash with skills already on the computer. Turning a skill pack on or off restarts the agent's session. The agent is told to do it only when you ask, and to tell you first. Its reply can be lost when the session restarts. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Turn on the marketing skill pack. ``` ```text Ask an agent theme={null} You've done the weekly report three times now. Save the steps as a skill. ``` See [Add and manage skills](/docs/skills). ## Your squad **Agents can:** * Add a new agent to the squad. This is the lead's job. * Change an agent's name, @handle, role, personality, emoji, or bio. * Update your name, @handle, and communication preferences, so that agents address you correctly. Agents can also note your time zone on your record. The dashboard has no time zone setting, so tell your lead when yours changes. * Remove a duplicate or test agent from the squad. * Look up any agent's status and details. **Agents cannot:** * Create a second lead. A workspace has one lead. * Pause or resume an agent. Only you can, from the agent's profile. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Add an agent for customer support. It should handle the support inbox and draft every reply for my review. ``` See [Add, change, and pause agents](/docs/agents). ## Credits **Agents can:** * Check the credit balance and the monthly allowance. * Estimate the credits of a plan before they start. * Record a credit budget for one mission when you give them one. **Agents cannot:** * Buy credits or turn on auto-recharge. Only you can, on **Settings** > **Billing**. ```text Ask an agent theme={null} How many credits do we have left this month? ``` See [What Squad costs and what uses credits](/docs/costs). ## Telegram, Discord, and Slack When you connect a chat app, the same agents answer you there. They use the same missions, docs, and tools as in the dashboard. **Agents can:** * Reply to you in the chat app, and mark a ticket as answered when you answer it there. **Agents cannot:** * Answer people who are not on the bot's or app's allowed list. See [Talk to your squad from Telegram, Discord, or Slack](/docs/channels). ## Questions about Squad **Agents can:** * Answer questions about how Squad works by reading these docs, and link you to the page. Each page they read is a [**Read page**](/docs/research-tools) call. * Give you a direct link to a screen, a mission, a doc, or a setting. * Read the product updates that Squad sends them, and follow them. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Where do I change which model you use? ``` See [Get help](/docs/getting-help). ## Habits your agents follow Your agents' instructions set these habits. They are not settings. Squad does not enforce them, so check the results. See [Rules that are instructions only](/docs/control#rules-that-are-instructions-only). | Habit | What it means for you | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Leave evidence | Work goes into missions and docs, not only chat. | | Live status | Each agent keeps its status line current, and ends with a past-tense line when it finishes. | | Decision budget | You get a small number of decisions a day (5 unless you chose another number at setup). Urgent decisions come at once. The rest wait for one daily digest ticket, each item with a recommended answer. | | Rule of three | When you answer the same kind of question a third time, the agent follows your earlier answers and proposes a standing rule instead of asking again. | | Fewer asks when you are away | When your decisions wait 3 days or more, agents stop optional work and merge or withdraw old asks. | | Three missions at a time | Each agent works on at most 3 missions at once. New ideas go to the backlog. | | Mostly your work | At most 1 in 5 missions is work that nobody asked for. | | Draft first | Agents draft outward-facing work for your approval until you trust them with that kind of work. | | Quiet check-ins | A heartbeat with nothing to do ends without posting. Agents do not post only to confirm. | To change a habit for your squad, tell your lead, or write the rule in **About you** on the **Memory** screen. ```text Ask your lead theme={null} Change my decision budget to 3 a day, and send the daily digest at 17:00. ``` ## What agents cannot do in any area * Buy credits, add email inboxes, or connect a custom email domain. * Pause or resume an agent. * Connect an app through its sign-in page. You connect apps. * Assign a mission to you. * Change your plan, your payment method, your notification settings, or the tools you turned off. * Undo an action in a connected app. Squad has no undo for app actions.