# How agents are started and reached

> An agent's availability is one switch and a checkbox for each way in, deciding what can start the agent and who can reach it.

An agent is started by a person in the Hub, by your app with the agent embedded, by your server over the API, by a webhook trigger, by a schedule, by another agent, or by an AI client over MCP.

An agent's **availability** is the **Available** switch and its checkboxes, in the **Availability** card on the agent's **Versions & Availability** tab. Every way in reaches the same agent, runs under the same [limits](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/limits), and needs its own box ticked.

## Why it matters

You build an agent once and reach it from chat, your product, a schedule or another system without copying it. You open only the ways in you mean to, and switching **Available** off closes them all at once.

> **Info:** Every way in runs under the same [compliance rules](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/compliance). Opening another doesn't widen what the agent can do or change what's recorded.

## What starts a run

| What starts it                                                     | Checkbox it needs                        | See                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **An admin in the Studio**, on the agent's **Chat** tab            | None                                     | [Build an agent](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/build-an-agent)                                                    |
| **A person in the Hub**                                            | **The Hub**                              | [Build an agent](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/build-an-agent)                                                    |
| **An AI client** such as Claude or Claude Code, over MCP           | **The Hub** for members, none for admins | [Use your agents from AI clients](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/use-your-agents-from-claude-and-other-ai-clients) |
| **Your own product**, in an embedded session for one of your users | **Embedded in your own product**         | [Put an agent on your page](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/put-an-agent-on-your-page)                              |
| **Another agent** that has this one as a resource                  | **Other agents**                         | [Build an agent](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/build-an-agent)                                                    |
| **A schedule**                                                     | **Schedules**                            | [Start it from your server or a schedule](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/start-it-from-your-server)                |
| **Another product's webhook**, through a trigger                   | **Triggers**                             | [Start it from your server or a schedule](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/start-it-from-your-server)                |
| **Your own software**, calling the Mindset API with an org API key | **Outside systems**                      | [Start it from your server or a schedule](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/start-it-from-your-server)                |

A schedule can start the invoice exceptions agent every weekday at 07:00 UTC, and your finance system can call it the moment an invoice fails its match.

Only agents start runs. To schedule a function, schedule an agent that calls it.

## The Available switch and its checkboxes

An agent is available only when a version is active, the **Available** switch is on and at least one box is ticked. Switching it on with nothing ticked ticks every box. Switching it off refuses every way in at once, and the boxes are remembered.

A change takes effect when you press **Save**. Availability sits outside [versions](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/versions-and-going-live), so activating or rolling back a version leaves it as it was.

A new agent starts with every box unticked. [Builders](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/agents#orca-and-the-builders) tick only what their own wiring needs.

A schedule, trigger, API call or new embedded session without its box is refused with `agent_not_available_here`, naming the box. A member, an open embedded chat or another agent is told the agent doesn't exist.

## Who can reach what

| Who                      | What they reach                                                                                                        |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Org admins**           | Any agent in the org, whatever its availability: in the Studio and over the administrators' MCP server                 |
| **Members**              | Agents with **The Hub** ticked, in the Hub and from their own AI client through the users' MCP server                  |
| **Your product's users** | Agents with **Embedded in your own product** ticked, through a [session](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/sessions-and-trust) your server creates |

> **Warning:** Ticking **The Hub** shares the agent with every member in that [environment](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/environments). The Hub has no per-person list, so you can't share an agent with one person or one team.

Wherever it's reached, the agent carries its own resources, and a write operation still needs its [approval](https://docs.mindset.ai/docs/security-model).