Sub Agents

Sub-Agents

Sub-agents are role agents that Artemis can hand parts of a task to. Each one runs in isolation with its own instructions, tools and model, and only its final answer comes back to your chat.

How to use

1. Make sure Settings → Agents → Let Artemis use agents is on (it is on by default).
2. In a chat, check that the agents pill next to the model picker says Agents (not No agents).
3. Ask for it in plain words, or mention an agent with @: for example @Athena research the three most used open-source vector databases. Typing @ in the message box lists your agents.
4. Artemis plans the work, calls the delegate tool and runs up to 4 agents at once. Each agent shows up as a card in the chat with its task, tool calls, model and token count.
5. For important work, add "use the Reviewer" to your request. Artemis then sets review: true and Themis checks the output before the answer comes back.
6. Open Agents in the sidebar (under the "more" items) to see Running now: every agent that is working, what it is doing, and whether it is waiting for your approval. Click a card to open its chat.

Built-in roles

Agent	Role	Tools	Good for
Athena	Researcher	web, read, chats	Lookups, comparisons and summaries with sources
Hephaestus	Coder	read, write	Writing and editing code and project files
Calliope	Writer	read, write	Emails, docs, posts and summaries
Themis	Reviewer	read, web	Checking other agents' output (read-only)

When you call delegate without naming an agent, Artemis uses a plain read-only helper (read, web, chats).

Settings

Setting	Where	What it does
Let Artemis use agents	Settings → Agents	Lets Artemis hand parts of the work to agents (up to 4 at once, one level deep)
Ask before agents write files	Settings → Agents	On: every write by an agent asks you in the chat. Off: agents write without asking when edits are auto-allowed
Agents / No agents	Chat pill next to the model picker	Turns agents on or off for this chat only
Model	Agent editor	The model this agent uses. Empty means "Same as chat"

Write your own agent

In Settings → Agents (or the Your agents list on the Agents page) click New agent… and fill in:

• Name: how you call it, for example Athena. It cannot be changed after saving.
• Role: optional title. You can ask for the agent by name or by role.
• What is it for?: one line. Artemis reads it to decide when to use the agent.
• Model: put cheap jobs (search, summaries) on a cheap model and hard jobs on a strong one.
• Tools: the tool groups the agent may use.
• Instructions: the agent's system prompt.

Click Save agent. Agents are plain Markdown files, so you can also write them by hand. Open agents folder opens the folder.

---
name: Scout
role: Market researcher
description: Finds pricing and feature data for competing products.
model: prov:openrouter:qwen/qwen3.5-flash
tools: web, read
---

Search for official pricing pages first. Report a table with product, price and source URL.

Tool groups:

Group	Label in the editor	Tools
read	Read project files	list_dir, read_file, search_files
write	Write and edit files (asks you each time)	write_file, edit_file, write_spreadsheet, update_cells, create_folder, move_file
web	Search and read the web	web_search, web_fetch
chats	Search your saved chats	search_chats, read_chat

Where agent files live

• User agents: <userData>/agents/<slug>.md. Saving a built-in role (for example after Edit… on Athena) writes a user file that overrides it; the list then shows it as edited and Reset brings back the default.
• Project agents: <project folder>/.artemis/agents/<slug>.md. They come from the repository and are treated as untrusted: they never override a built-in or user agent (a clashing name gets a -project slug or a "(project)" suffix), a role match always prefers a non-project agent, and their description and instructions are size-capped.

Tips

• Give each agent a self-contained task. Agents do not see your chat, only the task and optional shared context.
• Use agents for broad research or parallel work. For a single quick lookup, asking Artemis directly is cheaper.
• Two agents should never be given the same file.

Limits and safety

• Up to 4 agents run at once, and at most 12 agent runs per task.
• Agents cannot call other agents.
• Agents never get file deletion, the terminal, computer control, Make, memory or connectors.
• Agent token use counts against the parent run's budget.
• If an agent's model is not available, it falls back to the chat model and a notice says so.

See also

• Brains
• Skills
• Tools and Approvals
• Providers and Models