Crew vs platform config ownership

A crew build attaches to an existing agent and takes over the LLM turn only. Everything else about the call keeps running from the platform agent config, which is read fresh at the start of every call. This page is the reference for deciding which knob to touch and where.

The one-line rule

Change your prompt, LLM messages, and function tools in crew code and agent-crew deploy. Change voice, STT, redaction, first message, timeouts, and detection in the agent settings (dashboard or update_agent); those take effect on the next call, no redeploy.

Prerequisites: create the agent first

You cannot create a new agent through a crew build. Create the agent first (from the dashboard or via client.atoms.agents.create_agent(...)), then attach a crew to that agent id:

$ smallestai agent-crew init --agent-id <AGENT_ID>

The crew scaffold hooks the deployed WebSocket URL to the existing agent doc. From that point on the two halves cooperate as described below.

What your crew code owns

Runs inside the crew you deploy. The platform sends events into this loop and consumes what the crew emits back. It never intervenes on any of these decisions during a call.

Concern	Mechanism in your crew code
System prompt / instructions	Crew node Python
LLM messages per turn	LLM request event in, LLM response events out
Function tools (`@function_tool`)	Registered inside the crew; schema stays crew-side
`end_call`	Emit the end-call event
`transfer_call` (cold or warm)	Emit the transfer event with cold or warm options
`speak()` (direct utterance)	Emit the speak event
Mute / unmute the user	Emit the mute or unmute event
Custom timeline events	Emit log events

Change any of these in code and redeploy the crew. The dashboard cannot change them.

What the platform always owns

Loaded from the agent config into the pipeline at call start. The crew build has no runtime channel to override any of these during a call.

Concern	Agent config field
PII redaction (transcript + recording)	`redactionConfig.isEnabled`
First message spoken by TTS pre-turn	`firstMessage`
TTS provider	`synthesizerType`
TTS voice, speed, similarity	`synthesizerArgs`, `synthesizerSpeed`
STT provider	`transcriberType`
STT language + supported languages	`defaultLanguage`, `supportedLanguages`
Language auto-switching	`languageSwitching`
Interruption handling	`allowInterruptions`, `interruptionBackoffTimer`
Wait for the user to speak first	`waitForUserToSpeakFirst`, `waitForUserToSpeakTimeoutSecs`
Voicemail detection	`voiceMailDetectionConfig`
Smart turn / VAD	`smartTurnConfig`, `voiceDetectionConfig`
Denoising	`denoisingConfig.isEnabled`
Session and idle timeouts	`sessionTimeoutConfig`, `llmIdleTimeoutConfig`
Background sound	`backgroundSound`
Pronunciation dictionary	`pronunciationDicts`
Mute user until first bot response	`muteUserUntilFirstBotResponse`

Change any of these on the agent (dashboard or update_agent) and the next call picks them up.

Safe no-ops on a crew agent

The following fields exist in the agent config UI but are never consumed for a crew agent. Editing them is harmless (no effect) and does not fix crew misbehavior.

Dashboard Tools panel (the toggles that expose transfer_call, end_call, and other tool names). This panel controls the single-prompt agent branch. For a crew agent the platform reads tools from the crew build, not from this panel. Toggling transfer_call here does not wire it up to a crew’s @function_tool transfer_call and cannot break the crew’s own tool.
Dashboard prompt field on the same panel. Also single-prompt only. Not read for a crew agent.
modelName on the agent doc. Informational. The crew serves its own model.
Agent-level tools field. Consumed only by the multi-agent branch, unreachable for a crew agent.

Gotcha: PII redaction is ON by default on dashboard-created agents

New agents created from the dashboard ship with redactionConfig.isEnabled: true. Redaction rewrites emails, names, and numbers in the surfaced transcript before the LLM sees them and before synthesis, and can trim a few leading words around them. If your caller reads out an account number or a date and your transcript shows [ACCOUNTNUMBER_1] where the digits should be, redaction is the reason.

Turn it off on the agent settings if the destination needs the raw values (dashboard, or redactionConfig.isEnabled: false via update_agent). Because redaction is platform-owned, the crew cannot toggle it at runtime.

Guidance

Editing dashboard-side voice, STT, redaction, or first-message settings on a crew agent is effective. Those are platform-owned. Turn redactionConfig.isEnabled off on the dashboard if you do not want it; the crew does not need to do anything.
Editing dashboard-side prompt or Tools-panel entries on a crew agent is not effective. Those are crew-owned and only read on the single-prompt branch. Change them in crew code and redeploy.
If a customer report describes a crew regression that lines up with a dashboard toggle change, check the crew deploy history first. Dashboard toggles on the single-prompt branch are inert for crew agents and cannot cause crew-side regressions.