# Getting Started

Coworkers live under **Coworkers** in the left sidebar. The list page shows a card for each Coworker in the workspace, with a **Create Coworker** (+) button to add a new one.

<details class="watch">
<summary><span class="watch-thumb"><img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Yb0arnh_iVw/mqdefault.jpg" alt=""><span class="video-length">4:46</span></span><span class="watch-text"><span class="watch-label">Watch: Build Your First Coworker</span><span class="watch-meta">5 min · Episode 1 of 9</span></span></summary>
<div class="video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Yb0arnh_iVw?rel=0&autoplay=1" title="Build Your First Coworker · Neo: Coworker in depth, Episode 1" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen loading="lazy"></iframe></div>
<p class="video-caption">Part of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdwdGIspgPs0">Neo: Coworker in depth</a>. <a href="../videos/coworkers.html#ep-1">All episodes</a>.</p>
</details>

[![Coworkers list page with Coworker cards and the Create Coworker (+) button](../images/coworker-list-v2.png)](../images/coworker-list-v2.png)

## Roles and Permissions

What you can do with a Coworker depends on your workspace role. If an action described in this section is unavailable to you, ask your workspace administrator to grant the relevant permission.

| Permission | What it allows |
| --- | --- |
| **View** | See the Coworkers area and open a Coworker. This is the prerequisite for every other permission. |
| **Create** | Show the Create Coworker button and create a new Coworker. With Create alone, you complete **Basics & Identity** and click **Create**; the other tabs are locked. |
| **Edit** | Save changes to an existing Coworker, and configure Channels, Skills, Memory, Behaviour, and Governance. |
| **Delete** | Delete a Coworker. |
| **Deploy** | Publish and deploy a version. |

## Quickstart: Your First Coworker

The fastest path to a working Coworker:

1. Click **Create Coworker** (the + icon). On the **Hire a digital coworker** welcome screen, click **Let’s get started**.
2. On **Basics & Identity**, enter the **Name**, **Tone**, **Job role**, **Foundation model**, and **Objective**, then click **Next**. The Coworker is created as a draft.
3. Add one **Channel** — for example NeoGPT for internal chat.
4. Add a **Skill** or two on the Skills tab.
5. Click **Publish**. The Coworker is versioned, compiled into an agentic flow, and deployed — its status becomes **Active**.
6. On the **Channels** tab, switch on the channel you added. Channels added before the first publish start switched off.
7. Open it in NeoGPT (or your channel) and send it a message.

For a guided, step-by-step first build, follow [Build Your First Coworker](../3_getting_started/for_coworkers.html). For a complete, real-world example, see the [Build a Coworker: An IT Helpdesk Assistant](worked_example.html).

## The Creation Wizard

Creating a Coworker opens a guided wizard with six steps, shown as a progress bar:

> **Basics & Identity → Channels → Skills → Memory → Behaviour → Governance**

Only five fields are required to create the Coworker — **Name**, **Tone**, **Job role**, **Foundation model**, and **Objective**, all on the first step. Clicking **Next** on that first step creates the Coworker straight away — you do not need to finish the wizard — so you can leave and return at any time. Each later step has a **Skip for now** link, and **Complete** on the last step closes the wizard.

> **Note**
>
> Coworker names must be unique within a workspace.

The new Coworker is saved as a **draft**. It goes live — status **Active** — only when someone with the **Deploy** permission publishes it.

As you fill in the other tabs, **Publish** to apply your changes (see [Publishing and Versioning](publishing.html)). Two things need a published version first:

- A [Channel](channels.html) or proactive routine can only be enabled after you have published at least once. A channel you add in the wizard starts switched off — switch it on from the **Channels** tab after you publish.
- The [KPIs & Output Details](kpis_output_details.html) tab appears only after the first publish, so it is not part of the wizard.

## The Detail (Edit) Page

Opening an existing Coworker shows the same areas as **tabs across the top**. The **Basics** tab is always available; the others enable once the record exists. Publishing controls — the version history and the **Publish** button — sit at the top right.

[![Coworker detail page — the tab bar and the publish controls](../images/coworker-detail.png)](../images/coworker-detail.png)

From here you can revisit any tab, make changes, and republish. The pages that follow walk through each tab in turn, beginning with [Basics & Identity](basics_identity.html).