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Configuring Capabilities with the CLI

In this tutorial you will use the CLI to enable capabilities step by step, chat with the agent after each change, and see the results. By the end you will have an agent that can browse the Zeta Alpha documentation and delegate tasks to a sub-agent that can fetch live web pages.

Prerequisites​

Step 1: See What You Have​

Start by listing the available tool sets:

za agents capabilities tool-sets list

You will see a table of all available tool sources and their status (active or excluded). Most are excluded by default.

Step 2: Enable Platform Docs​

The platform-docs tool set gives the agent two tools: list_platform_doc_pages (discovers available documentation pages) and read_platform_doc (fetches a page's content). Enable it:

za agents capabilities tool-sets configure platform-docs

Verify it's active:

za agents capabilities tool-sets list

Now start the dev sandbox and ask the agent something about the platform:

za agents dev

Try asking:

"How do I configure search tools?"

The agent will use list_platform_doc_pages to find the relevant documentation page, then read_platform_doc to fetch and read it. You can see the tool calls in the debug panel.

Step 3: Enable Web Tools​

The web-tools tool set gives the agent a web_fetch tool that can retrieve content from any public URL. Enable it:

za agents capabilities tool-sets configure web-tools

Now the agent can fetch live web pages. Try:

"What is the latest content on https://www.zeta-alpha.com?"

The agent fetches the page, strips boilerplate, and returns clean readable content.

Step 4: Enable Sub-Agent Delegation​

Sub-agent delegation lets the agent spin up isolated sub-agents for focused tasks. The main agent acts as an orchestrator, dispatching work and aggregating results.

Enable the sub-agent tool set:

za agents capabilities tool-sets configure sub-agent

Now the agent can delegate tasks. Combined with web tools, try something like:

"Go to https://www.zeta-alpha.com/blog and find the three most recent blog posts. For each one, delegate the following task to a sub-agent: fetch the full page and give me a one-paragraph summary. Then come back and compile the summaries into a table."

The agent will orchestrate sub-agents to fetch each blog post concurrently and return summaries.

Step 5: Review the Configuration​

Check the full project state:

za agents show

The capabilities table now shows the tool sets and delegation sources you configured. The configure command prompts for source settings, including whether the source should be enabled. All changes are stored in agent_setups.json, which you can inspect directly or manage through the CLI.

What You Learned​

  • za agents capabilities <capability> list shows available sources and their status
  • za agents capabilities <capability> configure <source> configures a source and can enable it
  • Changes take effect immediately in the dev sandbox
  • Capabilities compose: combining web tools with sub-agent delegation gives the agent the ability to orchestrate complex multi-page tasks