<a id="streaming-agents-console"></a>

# Manage Streaming Agents in the Confluent Cloud Console

You can create, configure, deploy, and monitor Streaming Agents
directly in the Confluent Cloud Console without writing SQL. The
Cloud Console provides a workflow for defining an
agent’s instructions, model, and tools, and shows you
deployments and configuration.

For the SQL-based workflow, see
[Create and Run Streaming Agents](create-and-run-streaming-agents.md#streaming-agents-build-and-run).

## Prerequisites

You need the following before you can manage Streaming Agents in
the Cloud Console:

- A Confluent Cloud account.
- A Apache Flink® compute pool in the target environment.
- The FlinkDeveloper role or equivalent permissions for compute
  pool access, connection creation, and agent operations.
- Write access to a Apache Kafka® cluster and topics for input, output,
  and log tables.
- An LLM provider account such as OpenAI,
  Anthropic, or Google Gemini, and an API key to access the
  account.

<a id="streaming-agents-console-navigate"></a>

## Navigate to Streaming Agents

You can access Streaming Agents from two places in
the Cloud Console.

### From the environment navigation

To open the **Streaming Agents** page:

1. Sign in to [Confluent Cloud](https://confluent.cloud).
2. In the navigation menu, click **Environments**.
3. Select the environment where you want to manage agents.
4. In the navigation menu, click **Streaming agents**.

   If you have existing agents, the **Streaming Agents** page
   shows all agents with their name, database, and creation
   date. Use the search bar to filter agents by name. To
   create an agent, see
   [Create an agent](#streaming-agents-console-create).

### From a Flink SQL workspace

To view Streaming Agents from a workspace:

1. Sign in to [Confluent Cloud](https://confluent.cloud).
2. In the navigation menu, click **SQL workspaces**.
3. Open a workspace. If you don’t have a workspace, create
   one.
4. In the left panel, expand a cluster node.
5. Expand **Agents**.

   If you have existing agents, they appear under the
   **Agents** node. You can also create an agent from
   here. For details, see
   [Create an agent](#streaming-agents-console-create).

<a id="streaming-agents-console-create"></a>

## Create an agent

You create a Streaming Agent in a side panel where you
configure the required and optional settings.

To open the creation panel, use one of the following methods:

- On the **Streaming Agents** page, click
  **Create streaming agent**.
- In the left panel of an SQL workspace, click the **+**
  button next to **Agents**.

To configure the agent, fill in the following fields in the
creation panel:

1. For **Database**, select the cluster for the agent.
2. For **Agent name**, enter a name for the agent.
3. Optionally, for **Description**, enter a description.
4. For **Instructions**, enter the agent’s role, goals, and
   behavioral constraints.
5. Select or create a model. For details, see
   [Select or create a model](#streaming-agents-console-model).
6. Optionally, click **Show advanced configurations** to add
   tools or set runtime options. For details, see
   [Add tools](#streaming-agents-console-tools) and
   [Configure advanced options](#streaming-agents-console-config).
7. Click **Create agent**.

   Alternatively, click **Get SQL** to generate the equivalent
   Flink SQL statement instead of creating the agent
   directly.

<a id="streaming-agents-console-model"></a>

### Select or create a model

Every agent requires a model for reasoning. You can select an
existing model, or you can create one when you create the
agent.

**Select an existing model**

From the **Model** dropdown, select a model.

**Create a new model**

If you don’t have a model registered, create one.
To create a new model:

1. In the **Model** dropdown, select **Create new model**.
2. For **Provider**, select a provider, such as OpenAI,
   Anthropic, or Gemini.
3. For **Integration**, select an existing connection, or
   create a new connection by providing the endpoint URL and
   credentials.
4. For **Model name**, enter a name.
5. Optionally, add or modify model properties like temperature
   and model version.
6. Click **Save model**.

The new model is auto-selected in the **Model** dropdown when
you return to the agent creation form.

For details on model properties, see
[CREATE MODEL](../../flink/reference/statements/create-model.md#flink-sql-create-model).

<a id="streaming-agents-console-tools"></a>

### Add tools

Tools let an agent access external systems, perform actions,
or retrieve information. You can add user-defined function (UDF)
tools and MCP server tools in the advanced configurations section
of the agent creation panel.

To add a tool to the agent:

1. Click **Show advanced configurations**.
2. Click **Add new tool**.
3. In the **Add agent tools** section, select an existing
   tool from the **Agent tools** dropdown, or click
   **Create a new agent tool** to create one.

#### Create a UDF-based tool

To create a UDF-based tool:

1. Click **Create a new agent tool**.
2. Select **User defined function**.
3. Select an existing UDF from the dropdown, or select
   **Create new function** and upload a Java JAR or Python
   artifact.
4. Click **Create new agent tool**.

The new tool is auto-selected in the tools dropdown when you
return to the agent creation form.

#### Create an MCP server tool

To create an MCP server tool:

1. Click **Create a new agent tool**.
2. Select **Custom MCP server**.
3. For **Integration**, select an existing MCP connection, or
   click **Add connection** to create a new one by providing
   the MCP server endpoint and credentials.
4. Click **Create new agent tool**.

For more information on tool types, see
[Call Tools](call-tools.md#streaming-agents-call-tools).
For connection details, see
[CREATE CONNECTION](../../flink/reference/statements/create-connection.md#flink-sql-create-connection).

<a id="streaming-agents-console-config"></a>

### Configure advanced options

The advanced configurations section includes the following
runtime options:

| Option                         | Description                                                                                                                                                                               |
|--------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Handle exception**           | How the agent handles errors. **FAIL** stops the agent<br/>on error. **CONTINUE** allows it to proceed.                                                                                   |
| **Max iterations**             | Maximum number of tool-calling iterations.                                                                                                                                                |
| **Request timeout**            | Maximum time in seconds for each request.                                                                                                                                                 |
| **Max consecutive failures**   | Number of consecutive failures allowed before the agent<br/>stops.                                                                                                                        |
| **Tokens management strategy** | How the agent manages conversation context when it<br/>grows too large. **NONE** performs no management.<br/>**SUMMARIZE** generates a summary. **TRIM** removes<br/>the oldest messages. |

For the full configuration reference, see
[Agent Runtime Guide](agent-runtime-guide.md#streaming-agents-runtime).

<a id="streaming-agents-console-details"></a>

## View agent details

To view the details for an agent, click the agent name on the
**Streaming Agents** page. The details page has three tabs:
**Overview**, **Deployments**, and **Configurations**.

### Overview

The **Overview** tab shows the following information:

- **Catalog**: The catalog where the agent is registered.
- **Database**: The database where the agent is registered.
- **Model**: The model that powers the agent.
- **Recent deployments**: Active deployments or an empty state
  with a **Run agent** button.
- **Prompt**: A summary of the agent’s instructions with a
  **View full prompt** link that opens the complete prompt in
  a window.
- **Tools**: A list of tools attached to the agent. If no tools
  are attached, an **Edit agent** button links to the edit
  flow.

### Deployments

The **Deployments** tab shows a table of all deployments for
the agent with the following columns:

- **Target**: The output table for the deployment.
- **Status**: The deployment state.
- **CFU**: Compute resource usage.
- **Type**: The deployment type.
- **State size**: The size of the deployment state.
- **Created**: When the deployment was created.
- **Account**: The account that created the deployment.

Use the search bar and status or type filters to find specific
deployments.

### Configurations

The **Configurations** tab shows a read-only view of the
agent’s runtime configuration values, including handle
exception, max consecutive failures, and tokens management
strategy.

<a id="streaming-agents-console-edit"></a>

## Edit an agent

You can modify an agent’s description, instructions, model,
tools, and advanced configuration through the Cloud Console. To edit
an agent:

1. On the agent details page, click **Edit**.
2. In the **Edit streaming agent** side panel, modify the
   fields as needed.
3. Optionally, click **Show advanced configurations** to
   update tools and runtime options.
4. Click **Save change**.

#### IMPORTANT
Editing an agent does not affect existing deployments.
Changes take effect when you recreate the deployment
statement.

<a id="streaming-agents-console-deploy"></a>

## Deploy an agent

After you create an agent, you deploy it to process streaming
data. To deploy an agent:

1. On the agent details page, click **Run**.
2. In the **Run streaming agent** panel, review the
   pre-filled SQL steps for creating the input table, output
   table, and agent system table.
3. Click **Done** to open a Flink SQL workspace with the
   deployment query.

The deployment creates a Flink job that reads events from the
input table, processes them through the agent, and writes
results to the output table. You can track the deployment
status on the **Deployments** tab of the agent details page.

<a id="streaming-agents-console-monitor"></a>

## Monitor an agent

The **Deployments** tab on the agent details page provides
real-time status for running agent deployments, including
resource usage and state information.

<a id="streaming-agents-console-delete"></a>

## Delete an agent

To delete an agent:

1. On the agent details page, click **More**.
2. Click **Delete**.
3. In the **Confirm deletion** window, enter the agent name
   to confirm.
4. Click **Confirm**.

## Related content

The following topics provide more information on streaming
agents:

- [Streaming Agents Overview](overview.md#ai-streaming-agents-overview)
- [Create and Run Streaming Agents (SQL)](create-and-run-streaming-agents.md#streaming-agents-build-and-run)
- [Call Tools](call-tools.md#streaming-agents-call-tools)
- [Agent Runtime Guide](agent-runtime-guide.md#streaming-agents-runtime)
- [Monitor Streaming Agents](monitor-streaming-agents.md#monitor-streaming-agents)
- [Debug Streaming Agents](debug-streaming-agents.md#debug-streaming-agents)
- [CREATE AGENT Statement](../../flink/reference/statements/create-agent.md#flink-sql-create-agent)
- [CREATE TOOL Statement](../../flink/reference/statements/create-tool.md#flink-sql-create-tool)
- [CREATE MODEL Statement](../../flink/reference/statements/create-model.md#flink-sql-create-model)

#### NOTE
This website includes content developed at the [Apache Software Foundation](https://www.apache.org/)
under the terms of the [Apache License v2](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html).