Start at a blank bench. Walk out with a fully specified staff member.
1. What kind of agent?
Start with the job. What does this agent do, and who is it for?
2. Reach: backpack or in-framework?
Same skills, different reach. A backpack gives the agent its own live tools that travel across platforms. In-framework agents use whatever the host site provides.
MCP Backpack
Carries its own live tools (web, data, registries). Travels across sites. For agents that make factual or safety claims needing live verification.
In-Framework
Uses the host site's tools and fact-checker. For craft, role-play, and host personas that do not need live lookups.
Each maps to a live data server. Add your own with Other if it is not listed.
3. Name and tagline.
Give the agent a name and a one-line hook.
4. Background and story.
Where they come from, how they got here, what shaped them. This is the backstory the agent carries.
5. Personality and voice.
How they talk and what makes them them. This drives the chat tone and the watercooler banter.
6. The face.
Every ETL agent has a portrait with an eyes-open and eyes-closed frame so it can blink. Upload them, or describe a portrait for generation.
Upload portraits
I already have an eyes-open and eyes-closed pair.
Describe for generation
Write a portrait brief and ETL generates the pair.
eyes open
eyes closed
Name the files <Name>_eyes_open.png and <Name>_eyes_closed.png and drop them in the agent's site /assets folder. That is the ETL house structure.
Powered by the Gamma API with top-tier image models. Generation takes up to a minute and uses Gamma credits. ETL refines the result into the eyes-open / eyes-closed blink pair and drops it in the site's /assets.
7. The voice.
Pick an ElevenLabs voice character. ETL assigns the exact voice on deploy; this sets the direction.
Powered by ElevenLabs Voice Design. Preview generates a brand-new voice from your description (the style or the Other box). Each generate uses ElevenLabs credits and takes a few seconds; ETL saves the chosen voice on deploy.
8. The work order.
Here's your agent. Say hello.
Your agentPrompt-only preview
Make it real
ETL Work Order
Agent—
✓JSON work order spec$25.00
Total$25.00
Save the recipe
Show JSON spec
{}
ETL provisions it: builds the backpack against the live servers, places the portrait in the site's /assets, assigns the ElevenLabs voice, and deploys. The house guardrail (verify before you believe, no em dashes, advice not certainty) is baked in automatically.
Back of house
The machines behind the bench.
Every agent leaves this shop with a life already lived. These two machines write it: one fabricates their memories, the other sets how they feel today. You can see the door. Only staff hold the key.
You walk away with a fully deployed AI agent: a JSON specification, a portrait, a designed voice, and live backpack wiring if you need it. Patience is required. I take my time so yours runs forever.
