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operator is a reserved agent ID auto-created at startup. In managed hosting it is your primary chat partner — the agent you talk to when you say “spin up a new researcher”, “what’s my fleet doing today”, or “apply the sales template”.

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What makes the operator different

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Operator-only tools

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fleet_tool

  • list_templates — see the 13 fleet templates.
  • apply_template — materialize a template (per-slot, not atomic — mid-loop failures leave partial fleets).

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operator_tools

A broad control-plane surface:
  • Inspection: inspect_agents, inspect_projects, list_pending, list_agent_queue, get_team_outputs, summarize_project_progress.
  • Project management: manage_project, create_project, add_agents_to_project, remove_agents_from_project, update_project_context, set_project_goal.
  • Agent management: manage_agent, create_agent, edit_agent (soft/hard split with 5 min / 30 min TTL), manage_task.
  • Edit lifecycle (legacy): propose_edit, confirm_edit, undo_change, cancel_pending_action, archive_audit_before.
  • Observation: save_observations (operator-owned OBSERVATIONS.md).

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Soft vs hard edits

Operator edits to other agents split by risk: Both soft and hard edits go through the Pending actions surface — visible in the dashboard’s Needs-You panel and via openlegion pending on the CLI.

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Operator ceiling

The operator can do a lot, but cannot:
  • Grant can_spawn=true to any agent (subagent/agent spawning requires explicit human approval outside chat).
  • Grant can_use_wallet=true to any agent (wallet access requires the same).
These ceilings are enforced in the permission matrix — even if the operator’s own permissions are maxed out, those two fields are off-limits.

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Where you’ll see the operator

  • CLI: openlegion start opens the REPL with the operator selected by default. /use operator switches back.
  • Channels: Once paired, the operator is the default agent for new conversations.
  • Dashboard: The Chat tab targets the operator by default. Settings → Operator lets you edit its system prompts and instruction overrides.

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Reserved IDs

operator is one of three reserved agent IDs (RESERVED_AGENT_IDS = {"mesh", "operator", "canary-probe"}). You can’t create a worker agent named operator, and the operator can’t be deleted.