- Before
- “I know exactly how freight should be counted — I just can't write the pipeline.” Every new question became a ticket.
- Now
- Builds the agent herself by conversation, fixes a failing test in one sentence and confirms every skill before it goes live.
One freight cost agent, from first message to first answer
Monday, 10:31. Lena Ortiz, a supply chain analyst at a medical device manufacturer, needs an agent that answers freight cost questions. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
- 0110:31
She describes the agent in her own words
Lena Ortiz · Supply chain analystThe Build screen opens on a conversation on the left and an empty agent on the right: purpose, data, rules, skills and the test board. Lena types what people keep asking her — what we spend, with which carrier, per unit on each lane, and how much goes on expedited freight. Beneath, the agents built here before: Returns in 15 minutes, Warehouse capacity in 11, Expiry & short-dated stock in 12, Supplier delivery in 17.
Agent Builder: “I'll find the data, write down your rules, draft its skills and test every one against figures you already trust.”
- 0210:33
It searches the warehouse and proposes the tables
Agent BuilderThe builder searches the supply chain warehouse, read-only, and finds 8 tables that look related. It highlights the likely six — freight_invoices (1.1M rows), shipment_lines (96.3M), carriers, sites, customer_accounts and fx_month_end — and asks how they join and which figures she already trusts. On the right the agent now has a name and three questions it will answer.
- 0310:36
She names the join keys and the reports she trusts
Lena Ortiz · Supply chain analystLena names the keys, says expedited means air or courier, and points to the September freight report and the Q3 lane review. The builder checks all 5 join keys against the warehouse, writes down 4 rules and takes 9 test questions from the September and August freight reports — month-end close, signed by Omar Haddad — and the Q3 lane cost review.
“A shipment has many lines, so I sum lines per shipment first — otherwise spend would repeat once per line.”
- 0410:38
Three skills drafted, nine tests run — two fail
Skill TesterOne click drafts three skills — spend by carrier, cost per unit by lane, expedited spend — each a question with the query that answers it, and runs all nine tests live and read-only. Seven pass. September spend comes out at $2,412,300 against $2,291,800 in the report, and the expedited share at 17.1% against 18.0%. The Skill Tester finds one cause for both.
“The $120,500 gap is 118 voided Kestrand Freight invoices that were re-billed in September — counted twice.”
- 0510:42
She fixes it in one sentence, then confirms each skill
Lena Ortiz · Supply chain analyst“Yes — leave out voided invoices (status VOID). They were re-billed.” The builder adds the rule to all three skills and re-runs every test: nine of nine pass, September is $2,291,800 and the expedited share 18.0%, matching the report. Each skill shows its test questions, expected figures, sources and answers; a failing test would block Confirm. Lena confirms all three, each stamped with her name and the time.
The Skill Tester never changes an expected figure and never marks a failing test as passed.
- 0610:45 · live
Live in 14 minutes, with no deployment step
Supply chain assistantGo live saves version 1.0 — instructions, 5 rules, 3 verified skills, 9 tests — and adds the agent to the supply chain assistant's routing. Three probe questions route as expected: Kestrand spend (0.94) and air freight share (0.91) to Freight cost, and the least on-time carrier (0.89) stays with Shipments & carriers.
“Freight cost agent is live, built in 14 minutes.”
- 0710:46
The first live question, answered from a verified skill
Supply chain assistantLena asks the way her colleagues will: what did a unit cost to move from Leiden to Madrid in September? The assistant routes it to Freight cost (match 0.95). $0.84 per unit — $351,900 of freight across 418,900 units on 1,912 shipments — split by carrier, with a note that courier is 10% of units but 24% of the lane's spend.
- 08One click
The query behind the number, open to read
Lena Ortiz · Supply chain analyst“See the query” opens the exact query that ran — read-only, 1.2 s, 46 lanes — with the lines that produced the figure highlighted, including the new VOID rule. Below it, the skill's three test questions and their sources. Customer contact columns are hidden from every answer.
“Highlighted: the lines that produced the cited number.”
- 09From now on
An agent page anyone can try, with its history
Lena Ortiz · Supply chain analystFreight cost now has its own page: 6 tables and 5 join keys, the rules it follows from the build conversation, a Try it box, and versions — v0.1 draft at 10:31, v1.0 live with 3 skills confirmed and 9 of 9 tests passing. Each night its tests run again.