Agent Presets

Agent presets let spawn_agent run sub-agents with role-specific configuration. Use them to control model cost, tool access, session visibility, and behavior.

Quick Start

[agents.presets.researcher]
identity.name = "scout"
identity.emoji = "🔍"
identity.theme = "thorough and methodical"
model = "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5-20241022"
tools.allow = ["read_file", "glob", "grep", "web_search", "web_fetch"]
tools.deny = ["exec", "write_file"]
system_prompt_suffix = "Gather facts and report clearly."

[agents.presets.coordinator]
identity.name = "orchestrator"
delegate_only = true
tools.allow = ["spawn_agent", "sessions_list", "sessions_history", "sessions_send", "task_list"]
sessions.can_send = true

Then call spawn_agent with a preset:

{
  "task": "Find all auth-related code paths",
  "preset": "researcher"
}

Config Fields

Top-level:

• [agents] default_preset (optional preset name)
• [agents] presets (map of named presets)

Per preset ([agents.presets.<name>]):

• identity.name, identity.emoji, identity.theme
• model
• tools.allow, tools.deny
• system_prompt_suffix
• max_iterations, timeout_secs
• sessions.* access policy
• memory.scope, memory.max_lines
• delegate_only

Tool Policy Behavior

• If tools.allow is empty, all tools start as allowed.
• If tools.allow is non-empty, only those tools are allowed.
• tools.deny is applied after allow-list filtering.
• For normal sub-agents, spawn_agent is always removed to avoid recursive runaway spawning.
• For delegate_only = true, the registry is restricted to delegation/session tools: spawn_agent, sessions_list, sessions_history, sessions_send, task_list.

Session Access Policy

sessions policy controls what a preset can see/send across sessions:

• key_prefix: optional session-key prefix filter
• allowed_keys: explicit allow-list
• can_send: allow/disallow sessions_send
• cross_agent: permit cross-agent session access

See Session Tools for full details.

Per-Agent Memory

Each preset can have persistent memory loaded from a MEMORY.md file at spawn time. The memory content is injected into the sub-agent system prompt.

• memory.scope determines where the file is stored:
  • user (default): ~/.moltis/agent-memory/<preset>/MEMORY.md
  • project: .moltis/agent-memory/<preset>/MEMORY.md
  • local: .moltis/agent-memory-local/<preset>/MEMORY.md
• memory.max_lines limits how much is injected (default: 200).

The directory is created automatically so agents can write to it.

[agents.presets.researcher.memory]
scope = "project"
max_lines = 100

Model Selection Order

When spawn_agent runs, model choice is:

1. Explicit model parameter in tool call
2. Preset model
3. Parent/default provider model

Markdown Agent Definitions

Presets can also be defined as markdown files with YAML frontmatter, discovered from:

• ~/.moltis/agents/*.md (user-global)
• .moltis/agents/*.md (project-local)

Project-local files override user-global files with the same name. TOML presets always take precedence over markdown definitions.

Example ~/.moltis/agents/reviewer.md:

---
name: reviewer
tools: Read, Grep, Glob
model: sonnet
emoji: 🔍
theme: focused and efficient
max_iterations: 20
timeout_secs: 60
---
You are a code reviewer. Focus on correctness and security.

Frontmatter fields: name (required), tools, deny_tools, model, emoji, theme, delegate_only, max_iterations, timeout_secs. The markdown body becomes system_prompt_suffix.