First Setup

With HeartBeatAgents installed (see Installation), there are two things to do before you have a working agent: connect a language model provider, and create the agent itself.

1. Add an LLM Provider

Agents need a language model to think. Navigate to Settings → Providers and add at least one. HeartBeatAgents supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, Mistral, Groq, xAI, OpenRouter, Qwen, Moonshot AI, Ollama (local), and custom endpoints.

To add a provider, you need an API key from that provider's platform. For example, to add OpenAI:

1. Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys
2. Create a new API key
3. Copy the key
4. In HeartBeatAgents, click "Add Provider"
5. Select "OpenAI" and paste your key
6. Click "Verify & Save"

The system validates your key with a test call. Once verified, the provider is available to any agent. You can add multiple providers. See Configuration for managing more than one.

2. Create Your First Agent

Navigate to Agents → Create Agent. You'll provide:

• Name: A display name (e.g., "Support Agent" or "Aria").
• Description: A brief summary of what this agent does.
• Primary Provider: The LLM provider this agent uses by default.
• Model: A specific model from that provider (e.g., "claude-sonnet-5" or "gpt-4o").
• Standing Orders: The system prompt defining the agent's role, personality, and boundaries.

A minimal standing order to start with:

You are a helpful assistant for [Your Company].
You are friendly, concise, and professional.
If you don't know the answer to a question, say so honestly.
Never make up information.

Click "Create Agent" and it's live.

Next

Head to Quick Start to actually talk to it.