Test the agent
By the end of this page you will know how to try your agent in the live preview and how to verify that role-based access and data governance behave correctly.
Prerequisites
- An AI Agent with at least one skill, saved at least once (Skills overview).
- Admin or Developer role.
The preview panel
The preview panel on the right of the editor lets you interact with your agent without leaving it. If it’s hidden, click the chat-preview toggle in the header.
The panel reflects the modes you’ve enabled:
- Both Conversation and Voice enabled → Chat and Voice tabs.
- A single mode → no tabs, just that interface.
- No modes enabled → “No interaction modes are enabled for this agent.” Enable Conversation or Voice in Modes.
Chat with the agent
Send a message
Type a message in the Chat tab and send it. The agent matches your message to a skill, reasons, calls any tools, and replies.
Watch the reasoning
Depending on your UX Settings, the reply may include a thinking block and tool chips. In the Studio preview these default to full detail, so you can see which skill matched and which tools ran.
The preview uses the saved configuration. If you change skills, prompts, or settings, click Save before testing again.
Test with the Voice tab
If Voice is enabled, switch to the Voice tab to talk to the agent and hear it respond, using your voice configuration.
Test as a role (governance)
When your project defines organization roles, the preview shows a Test as Role control. Use it to see the agent as a specific role would. Impersonation is role-based — you pick a role, not an individual user, because access rules are attached to roles.
Two role-driven layers are applied when you impersonate:
| Layer | What it controls | Comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Skill access | Which skills the agent can use | A skill’s Allowed Roles |
| Data governance | Which rows and columns a data query returns | Row Filters / Column Masks configured for that role on a table |
Pick a role
In the Test as Role selector, choose My Roles (default) or a specific role. The panel notes that “Data queries and skill access will be filtered using” that role’s rules, and starts a fresh session.
Verify access
Confirm that role-restricted skills only respond for the intended roles. If you’ve configured Row Filters or Column Masks, confirm that data queries return only the rows and columns that role should see. Click the reset button to return to your own roles.
The clearest way to see role gating is to ask the same question under two roles. Below, a staff-only “Issue Refund” skill is unavailable to the customer role — so the agent can’t process the refund and falls back to policy help — but is available to a support agent, who can proceed.
Data governance only takes effect when a Row Filter or Column Mask is configured for the role on that table — without one, a query returns all rows. Skill access, by contrast, applies as soon as a skill has Allowed Roles set. Configure data rules under Data → Tables (Row Filters / Column Masks) or the project Security page.
Common issues
- The agent always returns the fallback message — No skill is matching. Check skill descriptions, tags, and examples, and whether the skill is role-restricted for the tested role.
- Preview is unavailable — The agent has no saved version. Save it first.
- A tool errors in preview — The tool may need configuration or credentials. See Configuration & secrets.
- Changes aren’t reflected — You have unsaved changes. Save, then test again.