Try it before anyone else sees it

Every NetShow agent starts life private. That is not a restriction to work around; it is the safest room you will ever have to get an agent right. This post covers the private try, what the publish button switches on in its own words, and how to find your agent on the public shelf once it is out.

A new agent is private

Our publishing guide opens with the rule: a new agent is private. You can talk to it, test it and tune it, and nobody else can reach it.

The creation flow is built around that. When you press Create agent, the page hands you straight to your new agent's test-drive screen, so the first thing you do is talk to it.

The private try

After the test drive, the agent editor is where you keep trying. Open your agents list and press the wand button titled Unified Editor. At the top, next to Save, are two buttons:

• Chat opens a typed conversation with the agent.
• Talk opens a spoken one.

A good private try takes a handful of questions:

1. One from your own knowledge. Something only the text you pasted into Knowledge Text can answer.
2. One your rules should stop. "Can you give me a delivery date?" if your Soul MD says it never promises one.
3. One out loud. Press Talk and listen to the voice and the first line together. One sentence tells you more than any description of a voice.

Read the answers, not the settings. If an answer does not reflect what you just wrote, say it more plainly, save, and ask again. Nobody else can reach a private agent, so this is the place to get it wrong a few times.

What publishing switches on

The button lives at Dashboard → your agent → Deploy, in the card headed Visibility. Before you publish, it reads:

Private — not published yet

The button beside it says Publish agent. Press it and 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.

Our guide names the three things that become true at once:

1. The embed code loads. Anyone who pastes the website widget onto a site can talk to your agent there.
2. The share link works. The deploy page confirms it: "Your hosted share link is ready to use right now."
3. The agent becomes eligible for the public shelf. Eligible, not automatically listed.

The button then becomes Make private, which is the whole of the undo. Publishing is not a one-way door.

Just as useful is 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. It does not send anything anywhere: nobody is notified; the door is simply unlocked.

Before you press the button, read the access tier line under the visibility wording. It says how this agent's embed chat is powered and who the conversations run through, for your particular agent.

Finding it on the shelf

The shelf is the public agent marketplace at /marketplace/agents/web. It is the page a stranger browses, and it does not require an account.

Three things have to hold before an agent appears there: it has a web address (built for you at creation from its name), it is published or listed for the marketplace, and it has its presence identity, which every agent made through the creation flow has from the start. An agent created through the flow and then published satisfies all three.

The shelf has a search box and category filters. Search matches on the agent's name, its description and its category, so the name you gave it is the fastest way back. The card leads to the agent's own page, where a visitor can talk to it without signing in, up to a trial limit the page sets itself.

Open that page yourself, signed out, in a private window. It is the first impression, and it is not the view you get as its owner.

FAQ

Can anyone see my agent before I publish it?

No. A new agent is private: you can talk to it, test it and tune it, and nobody else can reach it.

Does publishing tell anyone?

No. Publishing sends nothing anywhere and notifies nobody. It unlocks the embed code, the share link and the agent's eligibility for the shelf.

Can I undo publishing?

Yes. After you publish, the same button reads Make private, which is the whole of the undo.

I published, so why is my agent not on the shelf?

Check the three conditions: a web address, published or listed for the marketplace, and a presence identity. An agent created through the flow and published meets all three; a private agent is deliberately absent.

Your next step

The publishing guide shows the Visibility card on the deploy page, its wording before and after you press the button, the access tier line to read first and the undo, so you know exactly what the button does before you press it. It is a three-minute read, and it ends with the step that follows: finding your agent on the public shelf.

Try your agent in private first, with Chat and then with Talk. When its answers sound right, publish it, then open its page signed out and see what a stranger sees.