# Identity and profile

> An agent's name, handle, avatar, profile, and character — what each one changes, and which ones the agent itself can see.

An agent's **identity** is the part of it you address and recognize: its name, its handle, its avatar, and the character that shapes how it writes.

## When to use it

Set identity when you create an agent, and revisit it when you have more than a handful of agents and can no longer tell them apart at a glance. Identity is not where you change behavior — that is the [system prompt](/docs/build/system-prompt/).

## What each field does

| Field | Visible where | Changes what |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Name** | Agent lists, conversation headers, notifications | How you recognize it |
| **Handle** | Addressing the agent, mentions | How you refer to it |
| **Avatar** | Everywhere the agent appears | Recognition at a glance |
| **Profile** | Agent Builder, agent detail | A short description of what this agent is for |
| **Character** | The agent's own context | Tone and manner of its replies |

## Character versus system prompt

These two are often confused, and keeping them separate is what makes both useful.

**Character** is *manner* — concise or expansive, formal or direct, how much it hedges. **System prompt** is *job* — what it does, what it must never do, what a good result looks like.

If you put the job in the character field, you will find yourself unable to change tone without rewriting the job. If you put tone rules in the prompt, they compete for attention with the instructions that matter.

<Aside type="note" title="The agent sees its own identity">
  Name, handle, and character are part of what the agent reads at the start of a
  run. An agent named "Inbox Triage" with a terse character behaves differently
  from the same prompt under a different identity — usually mildly, occasionally
  more than you expect.
</Aside>

## Avatars

An agent's avatar appears in every list, header, and notification that mentions it. Uploading one is the cheapest way to make a workspace with several agents navigable. An agent without an uploaded avatar falls back to a generated one.

## Limits

- The handle is chosen at creation and is intended to be stable — other things reference it.
- Identity fields do not grant the agent anything. An agent named "Email Assistant" has no access to email until a [connector](/docs/connect/overview/) is bound to it.
- Character shapes tone, not capability. It cannot make the agent do something its prompt and tools do not allow.

## Related

<CardGrid>
  <LinkCard
    title="System prompt and revisions"
    href="/docs/build/system-prompt/"
    description="Where the agent's actual job is defined."
  />
  <LinkCard
    title="Agent Builder"
    href="/docs/build/agent-builder/"
    description="The four sections, and what belongs in each."
  />
</CardGrid>