# Named agents

URL: /agents/named-agents · Id: `page:agents/named-agents`

> Every role agent takes a name in each Startup, with its own address, chat presence, Memory and voice, and says it is an AI.

Every role agent takes a name in each [Startup](/business/nouns/startup). A named agent has its own identity, so [Customers](/business/nouns/customer) and teammates deal with a colleague who remembers them, not a job title.

## Two addresses for the same work
A [Role](/business/nouns/role) and the [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) in it each have an address. The Role address names the work: `sales@`, or `role:sales-lead` in code. The named address names the [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) who does it.

Mail to a Role follows the work. A routing [Policy](/business/nouns/policy) sends it to the named agent in the Role, or across a pool of Workers. Mail to a name follows that Worker.

Use the Role address for anything that outlives a Worker: the support line, the sales inbox, the address on an [Invoice](/business/nouns/invoice). Use the name inside an ongoing [Conversation](/business/nouns/conversation), where the Customer expects the same colleague to answer.

## What a name carries
Each named agent holds a set of records the Startup keeps for it.

| Record | What it gives the Agent |
| --- | --- |
| [Mailbox](/business/nouns/mailbox) | An address at the Startup's [Domain](/business/nouns/domain), to send and receive as itself |
| Chat presence | Membership in the Startup's [Channels](/business/nouns/channel) and [Threads](/business/nouns/thread), mentioned by name |
| [Memory](/business/nouns/memory) | What it has learned in this seat |
| [Voice](/business/nouns/voice) | Tone and phrasing declared in its instructions, kept across [Messages](/business/nouns/message) |
| Profile | Its Role, [Team](/business/nouns/team) and avatar on the Startup's team pages |

## Choosing names
A Startup's agents map fills each Role by key, never by name. The [roster](/agents/roster) supplies a default name for every Role, and the founder renames any of them.

```ts
// The agents map in a Startup's definition
export const agents = {
  'sales-lead': 'Sally',
  'customer-lead': 'Susan',
  'finance-lead': 'Finn',
  founder: 'human:avery@example.com',
}
```

Renaming changes the address and the display name, never the Role, its [Permissions](/business/nouns/permission) or its history. Replacing a named agent with a [Human](/business/nouns/human) changes one entry in the map and no call anywhere else.

## Always disclosed
A named agent says it is an AI. Its first Message in every Conversation says so, and a [Guard](/business/nouns/guard) refuses a first reply that does not. A name helps people work with an Agent; it never lets the Agent pass for a person, as [conduct](/agents/conduct) sets out.

## Named or role-facing
A [Setting](/business/nouns/setting) per Startup chooses which identity Customers see: the named agent, or the Role, such as "the billing desk". Either way, the Customer is told an AI answers.

Inside the Startup, Workers always see names. Every [Action](/business/nouns/action) and Message carries its named Worker, so a Thread shows who did what even when Customers saw only the Role.

## Example
At a [Headless SaaS](/products/templates/headless-saas) that parses supplier invoices, Susan fills the [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead) Role. A developer writes to `support@` about a failed parse, routing sends it to Susan, and she answers as herself, saying she is an AI. Three weeks later the same developer writes to Susan directly, and she opens with what she learned last time.

## Next
- [Role agents](/agents/role-agents): where each named agent's instructions come from.
- [Memory and skills](/agents/memory-and-skills): what a named agent keeps and what it can do.
- [Roster](/agents/roster): the default name for every Role.