---
title: Three types of AI agents, one brain
description: How can chat, scheduled workflows and your own AI assistant use the same business knowledge and tools? Explore three ways to work with agents, all connected to one shared brain.
canonical_url: https://hubzoid.com/academy/inside-ai-agents/04-three-types-one-brain
last_updated: 2026-10-14
---

# Three types of AI agents, one brain

Choose what starts a task: a person, a trigger or an assistant.

Lesson 4 of 9. Video length 3:22.

[Watch the video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQkfXSHfkTU)

## What starts the work

|  | Chat | Workflow | Your own assistant |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Started by | a person asking | a schedule, a webhook, a manual run or a request in chat | the assistant a person already uses |
| At Wren & Page | Sam asks how each branch did | Nora's report at 8:00 | Maya asks from her assistant |
| Who runs the model | the hub | the hub, only in the steps that need it | the assistant, with its own model |
| In Hubzoid | web chat, Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram | `workflows/` in Python, `schedule/` in plain English | the hub's MCP server |
| Built in | lesson 6 | lesson 7 | lesson 8 |

## One brain, three ways in

All three read the same files. Change the returns policy once, and every way in uses the new version.

```text
wren-page/
  AGENTS.md
  knowledge/
  skills/
  tools_local/
  workflows/
  schedule/
  .env
```

## What is shared, and what is not

| Shared across all three | Kept separate |
| --- | --- |
| Knowledge, skills and tools | Each person's conversation history |
| The agent's instructions in `AGENTS.md` | Each workflow run and its saved steps |
| The rules for restricted tools | Each person's permissions |

So "one brain" means one source of truth, not one shared memory of every conversation.

## Try it: sort your own tasks

1. **List five tasks your team repeats.**
2. **For each, ask what starts it:** a person, a clock or event, or their own assistant.
3. **Mark the one to build first.** The most frequent usually wins.

```md title="task-sorter.md"
| Task                          | What starts it        | Way in    |
| ----------------------------- | --------------------- | --------- |
| How did a branch do yesterday | a person asks         | chat      |
| Morning sales report          | 8:00 every day        | workflow  |
| Check a publisher invoice     | Maya, in her own tool | assistant |
```

## If you're stuck

### My task fits two ways

That's normal. Start with the way it happens most often, and add the other later on the same brain.

### Can a chat message start a workflow?

Yes, when the workflow offers it. A code workflow declared with `as_tool=True` becomes a chat tool that runs as the person asking, and `schedulable=True` lets people save their own schedule for it. Both need a grant from an administrator. A workflow also starts on its schedule, from a webhook, or by hand with `hubzoid schedule run`.

## Go deeper

- [The Hub](https://hubzoid.com/docs/concepts/hub): What a hub holds, and how the three ways reach it.
- [Workflows and schedules](https://hubzoid.com/docs/concepts/workflows-and-schedules): Code workflows, plain-English tasks and triggers.
- [Web chat](https://hubzoid.com/docs/chat/web-chat): The chat your team signs in to.
- [Connect an assistant](https://hubzoid.com/docs/guides/connect-an-assistant): Reach the hub from Claude Code, Codex and other MCP clients.

## Transcript

### Intro (0:00)

Welcome back to Inside AI Agents. So far, we've built the brain. Knowledge, skills and tools. This time, the three ways a team puts it to work.

### Three people, three habits (0:12)

Sam asks questions all day, in chat. Nora wants the morning numbers waiting at eight, without asking anyone. And Maya works in her own AI assistant, like Claude Code or Codex, and doesn't want another window.

The quick fix is three separate agents. Each one gets its own copy of the policies, the steps and the tools.

Remember when the returns policy changed to forty-five days? Now someone has to change it three times. Miss one, and Sam's chat says forty-five, while Nora's report still says sixty. The three agents slowly drift apart.

### What actually differs (0:50)

Look closely, and the three agents are almost the same. Same knowledge. Same skills. Same tools. What really differs is how the work starts.

### A person asks (1:01)

One. A person asks, in the chat they already use. The web, Slack, WhatsApp or Telegram. Sam types, how did each branch do yesterday? The harness runs its loop, and answers right there in the chat. That's a chat agent.

### Something else starts it (1:15)

Two. Nobody asks. Something else starts it. A schedule, like eight every morning. Or an event, like a new order arriving from another system.

The steps run in order. Most are plain code, like pulling yesterday's sales. Where a step needs judgment, like spotting anything unusual, it runs the same harness, with the same brain, just for that step. Then it saves the report, and emails Nora a link. It's in her inbox before the shop opens. That's a workflow. The same steps every time, and thinking only where it's needed.

### Your own assistant (1:50)

Three. Your own assistant connects. Remember MCP from last time? It brought tools into an agent. Here, it runs the other way. The brain offers its knowledge, skills and tools, through MCP. Maya's Claude Code connects, and asks about yesterday's sales, without leaving her window. Her assistant brings its own model. The brain brings what the shop knows.

### One brain (2:14)

So don't build three agents. Build one brain, with three ways in. Change the returns policy once, and the chat, the morning report and Maya's assistant all use it.

And the three ways overlap. Maya can ask in chat in the morning, and from her own assistant in the afternoon. Same brain, both times.

### One brain, three ways in (2:35)

So those are the three types of agents. Really, they're three ways into one brain. A person asks in chat. A schedule or an event starts a workflow. Or your own assistant connects through MCP.

One brain. Three ways in.

### Try it, part two and next (2:52)

Try this. Pick one task from your week. Ask what starts it. A person asking, a clock or an event, or your own assistant. Keep that task in mind.

That's the end of part one. In part two, we get hands on. We'll set all this up with Hubzoid, an open-source platform for your team's internal agents. Your skill and your tool go in first. Next time, we explore the brain, file by file.

## What the video shows

- Chat starts with a person, workflows start on demand or from a trigger, and an assistant can call the shared Hub over MCP.
- They can share knowledge and tools while keeping histories, workflow state and permissions separate.

## Files and further reading

- [Workflows and schedules](https://hubzoid.com/docs/concepts/workflows-and-schedules)