# What is Agent Template?

Also called agent blueprint, role template.

An agent template is a reusable configuration for an agent, typically holding a role description, instructions, a default set of tools, attached procedures, and permission defaults. Creating an agent from a template copies those settings into a new instance. Templates make setup repeatable, and because the copy is usually independent, later edits to the template may not reach agents already created.

A template separates the design of a role from the running instance of it. The design is written once and reviewed once, then any number of instances are created from it, each with its own credentials, stored context, and history. This is the same reason organizations keep a job description separate from the person currently holding the job.

Templates are how agencies, franchises, and multi tenant products keep behavior consistent across many customers, and how a single company keeps two agents doing the same job in two regions from drifting apart. The template normally holds what is universal, such as the procedure and the escalation rules, while each instance holds what is local, such as language, hours, and system endpoints.

The most common operational surprise is drift. Because creating an instance copies, an instance created six months ago runs the instructions of six months ago. Platforms handle this differently: some re-apply template changes automatically, some require an explicit migration step, and some never update existing instances at all. Knowing which behavior applies matters before changing a widely used template.

Templates are what agent marketplaces usually distribute. They overlap with skill libraries, though a skill is a single procedure and a template configures a whole role. Onboarding is what happens after instantiation, when the fresh copy receives company specific context, access, and a supervised first period.

## Key points

- Reusable role configuration: instructions, tools, procedures, permissions
- Instantiation copies settings into an independent instance
- Existing instances can drift from an updated template
- Template holds the universal, the instance holds the local

## In practice

A bookkeeping firm writes one template for a monthly close agent: the checklist, the tools it may use, and a rule that anything above a set variance is escalated. It creates one instance per client, each pointed at that client's accounting system and calendar. When the checklist gains a step, the firm has to push that change to every existing instance, not only to the template.

## Related terms

- [Agent Marketplace](/en/glossary/agent-marketplace)
- [Agent Onboarding](/en/glossary/agent-onboarding)
- [Agent Skill Library](/en/glossary/agent-skill-library)
- [Standard Operating Procedure](/en/glossary/standard-operating-procedure)
- [White Label AI](/en/glossary/white-label-ai)

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