MemberJunction Built-In AI Agents Guide

MemberJunction ships with a rich catalog of built-in AI agents spanning conversational orchestration, autonomous personal coordination, deep research, query and form authoring, agent/skill engineering, and system operations.

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1. Architectural Overview & Agent Taxonomy

All built-in MemberJunction agents run on the unified @memberjunction/ai-agents runtime (BaseAgent), inheriting:

• User Identity Ceiling (contextUser): Every agent execution—whether interactive, scheduled (UserRoutineDispatcherDriver / AgentScheduledJobDriver), durable task graph (TaskGraphOrchestrator), or sub-agent delegation—executes under the originating user’s security principal (MJ: Users), enforcing Entity Permissions, Row-Level Security (RLS), Field-Level Security (FLS), and scoped knowledge retrieval.
• Per-User Policy Narrowing (MJ: AI Agent User Policies): Users can further narrow any agent’s permissions below their own ceiling via AgentUserPolicyEngine, including custom RLS filters, FLS hidden/read-only field masks, action approval gates, and time-of-day / day-of-week execution windows.
• 3-Tier Wake Gate (MJ: User Routines): Self-scheduling agents register RoutineType = 'AgentWake' routines evaluated by WakeGateEvaluator (Tier 0 durable watermarks & unchanged-hash skip, Tier 1 SafeExpressionEvaluator, Tier 2 AIDecisionRunner, Tier 3 AIPromptRunner).

flowchart TB
    subgraph UserFacing["User-Facing Orchestrators"]
        Sage["Sage<br/>(Ambient Workspace Concierge)"]
        CoS["Chief of Staff<br/>(Personal Always-On Coordinator)"]
        VoiceCo["Voice Co-Agent<br/>(Realtime Voice Sidecar)"]
    end

    subgraph DomainSpecialists["Research & Analytics Specialists"]
        Research["Research Agent<br/>(DB + Web + Files + KB + Report Writer)"]
        QueryBuilder["Query Builder<br/>(Strategist + SQL Author)"]
        Knowledge["Knowledge Agent<br/>(Scoped Enterprise Search)"]
        Infographic["Infographic Agent<br/>(SVG & Visual Briefs)"]
    end

    subgraph BuilderAgents["Application & Platform Builders"]
        FormBuilder["Form Builder<br/>(Designer + Deterministic Builder)"]
        DBDesigner["Database Designer<br/>(Schema & Migration Architect)"]
        AgentMgr["Agent Manager<br/>(Planning + Architect + Builder)"]
        Codesmith["Codesmith / ActionSmith / SkillSmith"]
    end

    subgraph SystemOps["Governance, Memory & Lifecycle"]
        WorkflowPlanner["Workflow Planner<br/>(Multi-Agent Task Graph Planner)"]
        MemoryMgr["Memory Manager<br/>(Notes & Examples Extraction)"]
        RubricEval["Rubric Architect & Evaluator"]
        Onboarding["User Onboarding Flow Agent"]
    end

    Sage -->|"Single-Task or Multi-Agent Graph"| WorkflowPlanner
    Sage -->|"Delegates Ad-Hoc Requests"| Research
    Sage -->|"Delegates Ad-Hoc Requests"| QueryBuilder
    Sage -->|"Delegates Form Requests"| FormBuilder
    CoS -->|"Delegates Deep Analysis"| Research
    CoS -->|"Delegates SQL/KPI Queries"| QueryBuilder
    CoS -->|"Coordinates Peer CoS"| CoS

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2. Catalog of Built-In Agents in MJ Core

Agent Name	Type	Category	Primary Role & Capabilities
Sage	Loop	Assistant	Ambient concierge present in every MJ conversation. Answers quick questions, navigates the UI, and delegates specialized work via nextStep.type = 'Tasks'.
Chief of Staff	Loop	Assistant	Personal, self-scheduling agent (One CoS per user) that keeps the user’s priorities, runs their approvals and wake schedule, writes executive briefings, manages approvals, and coordinates across chat, email, and voice/telephony.
Workflow Planner	Loop (Sub-Agent of Sage)	Assistant	Designs multi-agent dependency DAGs (TaskGraph) using Find Candidate Agents and confirms execution plans with the user.
Form Builder	Loop (FormBuilderAgent)	Assistant	Two-stage deterministic orchestrator (Form Builder - Designer + Form Builder - Builder) that designs, lints, and persists interactive entity forms.
Research Agent	Loop	Research	Multi-source research orchestrator coordinating Database Research Agent, Web Research Agent, File Research Agent, KB Research Agent, and Research Report Writer.
Query Builder	Loop	Data & Analytics	Translates natural-language analytics questions into validated, parameterized MJ Stored Queries via Query Strategist and schema exploration tools.
Database Designer	Loop	Engineering	Assists administrators and developers in designing normalized tables, foreign keys, views, and MemberJunction migrations.
Agent Manager	Loop	Agent Management	Meta-agent system (Planning Designer, Agent Architect, Builder) for creating and refining MJ AI Agents, Prompts, and Actions.
Codesmith / ActionSmith / SkillSmith	Loop	Engineering	Specialized builder agents for authoring TypeScript code artifacts, custom MJ Actions, and reusable Agent Skills.
Memory Manager	Loop / System	Memory	Background service agent that extracts durable MJ: AI Agent Notes and MJ: AI Agent Examples from completed conversations.
User Onboarding Flow Agent	Flow	Administration	Deterministic Flow agent that guides administrators through provisioning new users, roles, and welcome communications.
Rubric Architect & Evaluator	Loop	Evaluation	Designs evaluation rubrics and scores agent runs for quality assurance.
Voice Co-Agent	Loop	Realtime	Low-latency voice companion that narrates tool execution and coordinates realtime audio sessions.

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3. Sage vs. Chief of Staff: Why Two Distinct Personas?

A core architectural principle in MemberJunction is keeping Sage and Chief of Staff separate:

flowchart LR
    subgraph SageModel["Sage (Workspace Concierge)"]
        S1["Reactive: Runs only when addressed in chat"]
        S2["Shared Persona: Uniform butler behavior across workspace"]
        S3["Stateless Triage: Fast routing & UI navigation"]
    end

    subgraph CoSModel["Chief of Staff (Personal Coordinator)"]
        C1["Always-On: Self-schedules via MJ: User Routines + 3-Tier Wake Gate"]
        C2["Per-User Identity & Policy: Custom name, narrowed RLS/FLS, approval rules"]
        C3["Stateful Workstreams: Owns briefings, reminders, approvals & peer follow-ups"]
    end

1. Sage is the Reactive Concierge: Sage is lightweight, fast, and stateless across sessions. When a user asks “Open the Accounts dashboard” or “Run a quick web search on Acme Corp”, Sage handles or delegates it immediately and steps back.
2. Chief of Staff is the Proactive Personal Coordinator: Each user has their own Chief of Staff relationship governed by a dedicated MJ: AI Agent User Policies row. The Chief of Staff wakes up autonomously on its own schedule or entity-change watermarks, checks what is waiting on the user (approvals, reminders, and any business data an installed skill provides), drafts briefings, and (when permitted) reaches out to colleagues or their Chief of Staff agents.

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4. Chief of Staff Agent: Core and Extensions

The Chief of Staff works on a plain MJ installation with no Open App. Everything it needs lives in MJ Core: the agent metadata (metadata/agents/.chief-of-staff-agent.json), the User Policy Engine (@memberjunction/ai-agents + @memberjunction/ai-core-plus), the Chief of Staff Core Actions (@memberjunction/core-actions), the Calendar / Free-Busy / Preflight Communication Verbs (@memberjunction/communication-types, @memberjunction/communication-ms-graph, @memberjunction/communication-gmail), the 3-Tier Wake Gate (@memberjunction/scheduling-engine) and the Chief of Staff application with its Overview, Approvals & Wakes and Governance pages (@memberjunction/ng-dashboards). Core knows nothing about any Open App’s entities. Business data such as priorities, objectives and to-dos arrives through extensions.

flowchart TD
    MJ["MJ Core Chief of Staff<br/>• Users (Security Principal)<br/>• AIAgentUserPolicy (Governance, Priorities in InstructionsOverride)<br/>• UserRoutines + 3-Tier WakeGateEvaluator (Briefings, Reminders)<br/>• AIAgentRequests (Approvals Queue)<br/>• CommunicationProvider + AIBridgeAgentIdentity<br/>• Chief of Staff application (Overview, Approvals & Wakes, Governance nav items)"]
    Ext["Extending Open App (for example BizApps Tasks: priorities, objectives and to-dos)<br/>• MJ: AI Skills row granted to the Chief of Staff<br/>• NavItem.* application settings adding its own pages to the Chief of Staff application"]
    Ext --> MJ

Chief of Staff Built-In Core Actions (@memberjunction/core-actions)

Action Name	Purpose & Security Enforcement
Configure Agent User Policy	Creates or updates the calling user’s MJ: AI Agent User Policies record (CoordinationMode, EmailChannelMode, CalendarChannelMode, PhoneChannelMode, MessagingChannelMode, approval gates, and narrowed EntityAccessRules / ActionPolicyRules).
Schedule Next Agent Wake	Registers or updates a RoutineType = 'AgentWake' row in MJ: User Routines with OneShot, Adaptive, or Recurring scheduling and a 3-Tier Wake Gate (WakeConfigurationJSON).
Verify My Communication Capabilities	Runs the 4-layer Enterprise Mailbox Security Gate (EnterpriseScopeMode, AllowedEmailDomains, MJ: AI Bridge Agent Identities utility mailbox lookup, and live VerifyMailboxAccess preflight) so the agent only offers email/calendar capabilities that the admin’s enterprise credential actually permits.
Get My Calendar Events and Availability	Hard-pinned to contextUser.Email: reads calendar events, checks free/busy intervals, computes optimal meeting times across attendees (Microsoft Graph, Gmail), and queries external scheduling links and availability (HubSpot Meetings API v3, Calendly API v2).
Manage My Calendar Event	Hard-pinned to contextUser.Email and governed by CalendarChannelMode (Disabled, ReadOnly, ProposeWithApproval, Autonomous): creates, updates, responds to (accept/tentative/decline), or cancels calendar events, creating an MJ: AI Agent Requests approval when required.
Manage My Email Inbox and Drafts	Hard-pinned to contextUser.Email (or the agent’s registered Utility Mailbox in SendAsAgent mode) and governed by EmailChannelMode: lists messages, creates drafts (DraftOnly), or sends/replies/forwards emails.
Send Inter-Agent Request	Sends a structured coordination message or creates an approval request between two users’ Chief of Staff agents without crossing user permission ceilings.
Prepare Outbound Call Brief	Validates PhoneChannelMode, builds a mandatory AI disclosure greeting, and structures the call objective, fallback plan, and prohibited commitments before any outbound voice call.

Where a wake’s output lands. UserRoutineDispatcherDriver runs each AgentWake routine in a conversation of its own, named after the routine (Chief of Staff — Wake (<workstreamKey>)), owned by the routine’s user and filed under the Routines application so it stays out of the default chat list. The run’s reply is written there, and the user gets an in-app notification linking to the routine run. The wake does not post into the conversation the user scheduled it from. Four clicks lead to it: the “Routine completed” notification opens the conversation in the Chat app; the Routines app’s run history has a “Conversation” button that does the same; and each routine card on the Chief of Staff app’s Overview and Approvals & Wakes pages has “Read Briefing” (a slide-in reader on the page) and “Open in Chat”. The chat sidebar itself never lists it. The Chief of Staff prompt tells the user this when it schedules a wake, and it does not create new Recurring routines on its own: a OneShot check-in ends when it has reported.

Event-driven wakes alongside the schedule. The cron/adaptive routines above are not the only way a Chief of Staff wakes. AgentWakeTriggerService in @memberjunction/ai-agents reacts to specific events by writing a OneShot RoutineType = 'AgentWake' row to MJ: User Routines with NextRunAt = now, which the 1-minute UserRoutineDispatcherDriver sweep picks up — so an event wake lands within about a minute, not at the next scheduled slot. It is still a routine, not a direct agent call, and an existing routine for the same workstreamKey keeps whatever 3-Tier Wake Gate it already has. Today the events are:

• An action-created MJ: AI Agent Requests row (Manage My Calendar Event, Manage My Email Inbox and Drafts, Prepare Outbound Call Brief approvals) moving from Requested to Approved / Rejected / Responded wakes the request owner’s agent with the outcome in resumeState.
• A new InterAgent request from Send Inter-Agent Request wakes the target user’s Chief of Staff; its later resolution wakes the sender’s. These cross-user paths currently need an Owner/system saving context (MJUserRoutineEntityServer.validateOwnership); a fix is pending.
• An inbound email to an MJ: AI Bridge Agent Identities utility mailbox from a verified internal user can wake that user’s agent via RouteInboundUtilityMailboxWake — available, but no ingestion path is wired to it yet.

Triggers, user scoping, resumeState shapes, result codes and a code sample: Event-Driven Agent Wakes in the @memberjunction/ai-agents README.

What Core Provides

• Priorities. The priorities the user names during onboarding are saved in the policy’s InstructionsOverride through Configure Agent User Policy. Core has no business-task entity: MJ: Tasks is the workflow engine and never holds to-dos.
• Reminders are one-shot wakes. A personal request (“remind me to call Mom on Wednesday”) becomes a OneShot AgentWake routine at that time whose whole reply is the reminder. It shows on the Approvals & Wakes page.
• Email approval comes before transport. Manage My Email Inbox and Drafts has a Send operation for a new outbound email (plus Reply/Forward; the older names SendEmail/ReplyToMessage/ForwardMessage are accepted). Under SendAsAgent/SendAsUser with RequireApprovalForExternalComms, a sending operation queues the MJ: AI Agent Requests approval before any mail provider is consulted and returns APPROVAL_REQUIRED, so the card appears in the Chief of Staff app even when no provider can reach the mailbox yet. On the approval-resolution wake the agent calls the action again with ConfirmedApprovalRequestID; only then is the provider resolved and the mailbox gate checked, and a failure there (NO_EMAIL_PROVIDER, a gate code) is reported to the user as undeliverable. DraftOnly never raises an approval: the draft is the user’s to send.
• Wake Now runs out of schedule. The “Wake Now” button calls the Run User Routine Now action, which hands the routine to the dispatcher’s manual-run path: no claim, no wake gate, so a one-shot (a reminder) keeps its scheduled time and a recurring routine keeps its cadence. Setting NextRunAt to now instead would make the dispatcher claim the routine and spend a one-shot. The caller must own the routine; bookkeeping runs as the scheduler’s system user, the target as the owner. A one-shot that has fired shows as Fired on the Approvals & Wakes page (the dispatcher disables it, which is “done”, not “broken”) and sits behind a “Show fired” toggle.
• Role grants. A regular user (the UI role only) needs Create + Update on MJ: AI Agent User Policies and MJ: AI Agent Requests, or onboarding cannot save their policy and no approval request can be raised for them. The grants ship as metadata (metadata/entity-permissions/.chief-of-staff-permissions.json, pushed with mj sync push); server-side entity subclasses keep both rows private to their user (MJAIAgentUserPolicyEntityServer, MJAIAgentRequestEntityServer): a non-Owner user can only save their own policy and only create or resolve requests that are for them. Cross-user paths such as Send Inter-Agent Request still need an Owner or system context. If the save does fail, the prompt tells the agent to say so and never to claim the preferences were kept in memory.

Extending the Chief of Staff

An Open App extends the core agent in two places, without core knowing about it:

1. The agent, through a skill. The app ships an MJ: AI Skills row whose Instructions explain its entities (for example People, objectives, assignments and to-dos), plus any actions it needs, and grants it to the Chief of Staff through MJ: AI Agent Skills. The Chief of Staff has AcceptsSkills = 'All' and SkillActivationMode = 'Auto', so it activates a skill whose ActivationMode = 'Auto' when a request needs it. The core prompt tells the agent to use an active skill for business data and to say plainly when none is installed.
2. The Chief of Staff application, through nav items. The app’s metadata adds MJ: Application Settings rows scoped to the Chief of Staff application, each named NavItem.<unique key> (for example NavItem.bizapps-tasks.chief-of-staff) with one nav item as JSON in Value: Label, Icon, ResourceType: "Custom", the DriverClass of a BaseResourceComponent its client package registers, and an optional Sequence (the core pages are 10, 20 and 30; an item without one goes last). BaseApplication.GetNavItems() merges these settings into every application’s nav bar, so the mechanism is not specific to the Chief of Staff. Each page is a normal resource component: it loads its own data, publishes its own agent context and reloads itself. The app’s teardown deletes its setting rows, which removes the pages. An extension cannot add cards to the core Overview page.

The BizApps Tasks app (bizapps-tasks) ships the priorities-and-tasks extension: a Chief of Staff Tasks & Priorities skill (People link, objectives and milestones, owner and holder rules, to-dos) and a NavItem.bizapps-tasks.chief-of-staff setting that adds its “Priorities & To-dos” page. It needs BizApps Common for People, and the user needs a People record (LinkedUserID, or the same email) before the page or the skill can see their tasks. See MemberJunction/bizapps-tasks#151.