Digital Employees
Department-scoped AI agents that know their role, own their knowledge, and escalate when they can't help.
A Digital Employee is a fully configured AI agent tied to a specific department — HR, IT, Documentation, Legal, Sales, or any custom function. Each one has its own knowledge base (populated from your internal docs), a scoped system prompt, a personalized introduction, and an escalation path for queries it can't resolve. Users interact with them in the normal chat interface — they just pick the right employee from the sidebar.
Digital Employees are plugin-based: you configure as many as you need from the admin panel without touching any code. HR and IT can run side by side, each with completely separate knowledge, behavior, and access controls.
What Makes a Digital Employee
Each Digital Employee is made up of four components that are bootstrapped automatically:
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Knowledge Base | Populated from a docs folder or live website. The agent searches it on every query. |
| Filter | Injects the agent's role, scope, and introduction into the system prompt. Detects when the agent can't help and appends the escalation block. |
| Tool Server | An hrida-mcpo sidecar that exposes search_docs, get_docs_page, and list_docs_sections tools. |
| Agent Model | The chat model (de_{slug}) that users interact with — wired to the KB, filter, and tool server above. |
Key Features
| 🏢 Multiple agents | HR, IT, Documentation, Sales, Legal, or any custom department — each fully isolated |
| 📚 Per-agent knowledge | Each agent has its own knowledge base, populated from a local folder or a live docs site |
| 🎭 Role-scoped behavior | Introduction message, scope description, and escalation contact set per agent |
| 🔑 Access control | Restrict which users and groups can chat with each agent — configurable without re-setup |
| ⚡ One-click bootstrap | 4-step SSE stream creates KB, filter, tool server, and agent model in one click |
| 🔄 Incremental sync | Add new docs to the KB without full re-setup — only new files are uploaded |
| 🔀 HridaDoc migration | Existing HridaDoc agents are auto-detected and can be migrated in one click |
Quick Start
1. Enable Digital Employees
Option A — Admin Console (no restart needed)
- Go to Admin Panel → Settings → General
- Scroll to the Features section
- Toggle Digital Employees on
Option B — Environment variable
ENABLE_DIGITAL_EMPLOYEES=true2. Open the Digital Employees panel
Go to Admin Panel → Digital Employees (tab in the admin navigation).
3. Add your first agent
Click + Add Agent, choose a template, and fill in:
- Display Name — e.g.
HR Agent - Department — e.g.
Human Resources - Role Title — e.g.
HR Support Specialist
Click Create & Configure — you'll land on the agent detail page.
4. Configure the agent
Fill in the Knowledge & Tools section:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| hrida-mcpo Base URL | Where the mcpo tool server is running (e.g. http://localhost:8000) |
| Docs Directory | Local path to your docs folder (e.g. /docs/hr-policies) |
| Docs Site URL | Alternative: a live website — the agent fetches pages via sitemap |
| Base LLM Model | Which model to use (default: gpt-4o) |
Fill in the Identity section:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Introduction Message | First thing the agent says to a new user |
| Scope Description | What topics the agent covers (shown in the system prompt) |
| Escalation Contact | Email/Slack shown when the agent can't help |
Click Save Config, then Run Setup.
5. Run Setup
The bootstrap runs four steps via SSE stream. Watch the progress:
- ✅ Knowledge Base — collects docs and indexes them
- ✅ Filter — registers the role-scoped behavior filter
- ✅ Tool Server — connects the mcpo tool server
- ✅ Agent Model — creates the chat model (
de_hr-agent)
When all four are green, the agent appears in the sidebar under the user's enabled features.
Agent Templates
When adding a new agent, choose a template to pre-fill department, role, and default prompts:
| Template | Department | Role |
|---|---|---|
| HridaDoc Agent | Documentation | Documentation Assistant |
| Documentation Agent | Documentation | Documentation Assistant |
| HR Agent | Human Resources | HR Support Specialist |
| IT Support Agent | IT | IT Support Engineer |
| Sales Agent | Sales | Sales Development Representative |
| Legal Agent | Legal | Legal Assistant |
| Custom Agent | (your choice) | (your choice) |
Managing Multiple Agents
The Admin Panel → Digital Employees grid shows all configured agents with:
- Department icon and name
- Status badge (
unconfigured/ready/error) - Enable/disable toggle
- Quick links to Configure and Delete
Each agent is completely independent — separate KB, filter, tool server, and model. You can run HR and IT simultaneously with no interference.
Access Control
By default, any user who has chat access can interact with any enabled Digital Employee. You can restrict access per agent to specific users or groups.
See the dedicated Access Control page for full details.
Syncing Docs
After initial setup, when you update your docs:
- Open the agent detail page (Admin Panel → Digital Employees → [Agent])
- Click Sync Docs
Only new files (not already in the knowledge base) are uploaded. Unchanged files are skipped — resync is much faster than full setup.
API Reference
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
GET /api/v1/digital-employees/ | List all configured agents |
GET /api/v1/digital-employees/types | Supported agent templates + config schemas |
POST /api/v1/digital-employees/ | Create a new agent |
GET /api/v1/digital-employees/{id} | Get agent details |
PATCH /api/v1/digital-employees/{id} | Update agent config (merged) |
DELETE /api/v1/digital-employees/{id} | Delete agent + cleanup components |
POST /api/v1/digital-employees/{id}/access | Update user/group access grants |
GET /api/v1/digital-employees/{id}/status | Health check (KB / Filter / Tool Server / Agent) |
POST /api/v1/digital-employees/{id}/setup/stream | SSE bootstrap (4-step) |
POST /api/v1/digital-employees/{id}/resync/stream | SSE incremental doc sync |
Environment Variables
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
ENABLE_DIGITAL_EMPLOYEES | true | Master switch — show/hide the feature |
DIGITAL_EMPLOYEE_MCPO_URL | http://localhost:8000 | Default mcpo base URL (used for legacy HridaDoc migration) |
DIGITAL_EMPLOYEE_DOCS_DIR | (empty) | Legacy HridaDoc local docs path |
DIGITAL_EMPLOYEE_DOCS_BASE_URL | (empty) | Legacy HridaDoc live site URL |
DIGITAL_EMPLOYEE_KB_ID | (empty) | Legacy HridaDoc knowledge base ID |
If you previously configured HridaDoc via Settings → Digital Employees, the existing config is automatically detected. Open Admin Panel → Settings → Digital Employees and click Migrate HridaDoc Agent to import it into the new multi-agent system in one click.
Related
- Access Control — restrict which users and groups can chat with each agent
- HR Agent — Live HRMS integration via HridaOne: leave, attendance, payslips, and support tickets
- SSO Integration — Keycloak SSO for per-user data isolation across connected systems
- HridaOne Service Account — fallback account the HR Agent uses when no per-user SSO token is available
- Getting Started with Meetings — integrate Digital Employees into meeting workflows
- Knowledge Base — how knowledge bases work under the hood
- hrida-mcpo / Tool Servers — the tool server that powers doc search