A new agent is private. You can talk to it, test it, and tune it, and nobody else can reach it. Publishing is one button, and it is worth understanding what that button switches on before you press it.
Where the button is
Dashboard → your agent → Deploy (/dashboard/agents/{id}/deploy). Scroll to the card headed
Visibility.
Before you publish it reads:
Private — not published yet The embed code and share link below won't load until you publish {your agent}.
The button beside it says Publish agent.
What changes when you press it
The same card comes back reading:
Public — your embed is live Anyone with the embed code or share link below can talk to {your agent} right now.
Three things become true at once:
- The embed code loads. The website widget on the same page stops being inert. Anyone who pastes it onto a site can talk to your agent there.
- The share link works. The deploy page confirms it: "Your hosted share link is ready to use right now."
- The agent becomes eligible for the public shelf. Eligible, not automatically listed — there are a couple of other conditions, and Find it on the shelf walks through them.
The button becomes Make private, which is the whole of the undo. Publishing is not a one-way door.
Read the access tier line before you publish
Directly under the visibility wording there is an access tier pill and a sentence describing how this agent's embed chat is powered and who the conversations run through. Read it there rather than assuming — that card knows the answer for your particular agent, and this guide deliberately does not repeat it.
What publishing does not do
- It does not make your dashboard, your other agents, or your account public.
- It does not change what the agent knows or how it behaves. Its instructions, guardrails, and capabilities are exactly what they were a second earlier.
- It does not send anything anywhere. Nobody is notified; the door is simply unlocked.
A sensible order
Test drive first. The creation flow already hands you to the test-drive screen for a reason — a few real questions will tell you more than a re-read of the instruction body. Then publish, then check the shelf.
Next: Find it on the shelf.