nora agents

Manage Agent blocks — prompts, models, limits, data sources, memory.

An Agent is the reasoning core of a Flow. The agents command group is the CLI surface for creating, editing, and attaching resources to Agent blocks.

Every agents subcommand operates on the active Flow. Pin with nora flows use <slug> or override with --flow.

Commands

Command	Description
agents create --name <n>	Add a new Agent block.
agents update <agent-id>	Patch fields (many --set-* flags).
agents edit <agent-id>	Open the Agent’s JSON in $EDITOR.
agents delete <agent-id>	Remove the Agent (edges auto-prune).
agents sources list <agent-id>	List attached data sources.
agents sources attach <agent-id>	Attach a data source (documents, memory, KG).
agents sources update <agent-id>	Patch an attachment (preset, exclusions).
agents sources detach <agent-id>	Remove an attachment.
agents memories list <agent-id>	List attached memory spaces.
agents memories attach <agent-id>	Attach a memory space.
agents memories detach <agent-id>	Detach a memory space.
agents memories set-preset <agent-id>	Bind a retrieval preset to a memory space.
agents memories clear-preset <agent-id>	Unbind the preset (fall back to recency).

agents create

nora agents create \
  --name "Support Assistant" \
  --description "Answers customer support questions" \
  --prompt-file prompts/support.md \
  --model gpt-4o-mini \
  --mode api

Creates a new Agent at position (x, y) if given; otherwise auto-positions.

Create flags

Flag	Purpose
--name <n> (required)	Display name.
--description <d>	Short description.
--prompt <text>	Inline system prompt.
--prompt-file <path>	Read prompt from file. Overrides --prompt.
--model <m>	Model id (see nora providers list).
--mode	api / internal / sdk. Runtime execution mode.
--dispatch	parallel / conditional / routed. Multi-branch behavior.
--x <n>, --y <n>	Canvas position.

The command prints the new Agent’s ID — save it for subsequent update/sources calls.

agents update

nora agents update ag_abc \
  --set-prompt-file prompts/support-v2.md \
  --set-max-cost 0.25 \
  --set-approval on

The command supports many --set-* flags. Only fields you pass change; the rest stay as they were.

Update flags — grouped

Identity & content

• --set-name <n> — display name.
• --set-description <d> — description.
• --set-prompt <text> — inline prompt (replaces).
• --set-prompt-file <path> — prompt from file (replaces).

Model

• --set-model <m> — primary model.
• --set-mode <mode> — api / internal / sdk.
• --set-dispatch <mode> — parallel / conditional / routed.
• --set-image-model <m> — model for image inputs.
• --set-voice-model <m> — model for voice inputs.
• --set-voice-model-locale <l> — voice model locale.

Limits

• --set-max-turns <n> — tool-call round-trip cap.
• --set-max-tokens <n> — token cap per run.
• --set-max-cost <usd> — dollar cap per run.
• --set-memory-max-cost <usd> — dollar cap for memory ops per run.

Trigger flag

• --mark-trigger / --unmark-trigger — designate this Agent as the trigger entry.

Output

• --set-output-target <target> — where the Agent’s answer flows to downstream.

Approvals

• --set-approval on|off — require approval on output.
• --set-route-approval on|off — require approval on routing decisions.
• --set-cost-approval <usd>|off — require approval when a single run exceeds this dollar cost.

Behavior

• --set-force-fresh-context true|false — clear prior context each turn.
• --set-fuse-optout true|false — opt out of retrieval fusion (use single source).

Position/size

• --set-x <n>, --set-y <n>, --set-width <n>.

Bulk

• --patch <json> — arbitrary JSON patch to merge in. Advanced use; conflicts with other --set-* flags for the same field.

nora agents update --help prints the current full list.

agents edit

nora agents edit ag_abc

Fetches the Agent’s JSON, opens it in $EDITOR (default: vi). On save, the CLI applies the diff via update.

Best when you want to change several fields at once — often faster than chaining a dozen --set-* flags.

agents delete

nora agents delete ag_abc

Removes the Agent. Wires connected to it are pruned automatically. Requires confirmation unless --yes is passed.

agents sources — attach data

Data sources are what the Agent can retrieve from at inference. Each attachment specifies a source kind, an ID, and optional retrieval preset.

List

nora agents sources list ag_abc

Prints all sources: kind (documents_folder, memory, kg, vector), ID, and retrieval preset if set.

Attach

nora agents sources attach ag_abc \
  --kind documents_folder \
  --source-id billing \
  --preset high-precision \
  --method hybrid

Flags:

• --kind (required) — kg / vector / documents_folder / documents_file / memory.
• --source-id (required) — collection slug, folder tag, memory space ID, etc.
• --preset <preset-id> — retrieval preset (see nora retrieval presets list).
• --method <mode> — vector / keyword / hybrid / kg_only.
• --modes <m1,m2> — additional retrieval modes.
• --exclude-doc <id,…> — exclude specific documents.

Update

nora agents sources update ag_abc \
  --kind documents_folder \
  --source-id billing \
  --set-preset different-preset \
  --add-exclude-doc doc_xyz

Patch an existing attachment. Only flags passed change.

• --set-preset, --set-method, --set-modes.
• --set-exclude-doc-ids <ids> — replace the exclusion list.
• --add-exclude-doc <id> — append one.
• --remove-exclude-doc <id> — drop one.

Detach

nora agents sources detach ag_abc \
  --kind documents_folder \
  --source-id billing

Removes the attachment. The underlying data source is not touched.

agents memories — attach memory spaces

Memory attachments are separate from sources. Same shape.

List / attach / detach

nora agents memories list ag_abc
nora agents memories attach ag_abc --space-id sp_support_notes
nora agents memories detach ag_abc --space-id sp_support_notes

Bind a retrieval preset to a memory space

nora agents memories set-preset ag_abc \
  --space-id sp_support_notes \
  --preset recency-boosted

The Agent uses this preset when retrieving from that specific space. Different spaces can use different presets.

Clear the preset (fall back to recency-only):

nora agents memories clear-preset ag_abc --space-id sp_support_notes

Recipes

Bootstrap an Agent with prompt + model + sources

AGENT=$(nora agents create \
  --name "Support" \
  --prompt-file prompts/support.md \
  --model gpt-4o \
  --max-turns 10 \
  | jq -r '.id')

nora agents sources attach $AGENT --kind documents_folder --source-id policies
nora agents memories attach $AGENT --space-id customer_history

Swap the model on every Agent in a Flow

for id in $(nora flows get support | jq -r '.blocks[] | select(.kind=="agent").id'); do
  nora agents update $id --set-model gpt-4o-mini
done

Handy when doing cost experiments.

Enforce approvals on every Agent

for id in $(nora flows get support | jq -r '.blocks[] | select(.kind=="agent").id'); do
  nora agents update $id --set-approval on
done

Then publish — high-stakes rollout with a review gate on every output.