AI Team

AI Team is where you hand work to Cooper's AI agents. You describe an outcome, such as "Build an estimate for a kitchen renovation" or "Summarize open RFIs and project risks". Cooper picks the agent best suited to the job, writes a plan, uses Cooper's tools to read and change your data, brings in other specialist agents when it needs them, and writes up the result. You watch every step as it happens.

Project managers, estimators and office admins use AI Team for multi-step jobs that would take many clicks by hand. Each message you send starts a run. Runs that belong together form a session, so you can follow up in the same conversation.

Key conceptsCopy Anchor Link

When to use AI Team instead of ChatCopy Anchor Link

You can also talk to agents in Chat by typing @ and an agent's name. Use each for what it does best:

• AI Team: longer jobs with several steps. Cooper chooses the agent for you, writes a plan, can hand work to other specialists, shows every tool call, and stops at a cost limit you set.
• Chat: quick questions to a named agent inside a conversation with your colleagues.

Open AI TeamCopy Anchor Link

1. In the sidebar, open Brain.
2. Click AI Team.

AI Team opens at /connect/ai. When you open a session, the address changes to /connect/ai?session=<sessionId>. You can bookmark or share that link to go straight back to the session.

You need the AI Team permission in the Brain module to see the page. Your company's plan must also include AI Team. See Permissions.

How the page is laid outCopy Anchor Link

The header of the middle panel shows AI Orchestration, which run you are looking at (for example Run 2 of 3), the run's status, the agent that handled it and the start of your request. With no run open, it says "Route work across Cooper specialists".

Start a new sessionCopy Anchor Link

Send a follow-up in a sessionCopy Anchor Link

1. Click the session in the left panel.
2. Type your next message in the message box and press Enter.

Each follow-up is a new run in the same session. Cooper gives the agent the requests and final answers of the session's earlier completed runs, so you can say "now do the same for Tower B" or "make the second option cheaper".

Cooper does not pass on:

• Runs that failed or were cancelled.
• Files and folders attached to earlier messages. Attach them again if the new run needs them.

To start with a clean slate, click Start new run and begin a new session.

You can send one message at a time. While a run is working, the message box is greyed out and the Send button becomes the stop button (Cancel run).

How Cooper picks an agentCopy Anchor Link

Every run goes to one agent, the primary specialist. Cooper chooses it in this order:

1. Triggers. If your message contains one of an agent's triggers (for example /estimate or @tony), that agent takes the run. Triggers are set on the agent in Agents. Matching ignores upper and lower case.
2. Routing. Otherwise Cooper makes a quick AI call that reads each agent's routing description and picks the best match.

Cooper only considers agents that are active and whose Mode is Both (default) or Orchestration only. Agents set to Interactive only are never picked in AI Team.

While Cooper chooses, the run shows Routing and "Selecting the best specialist…". Once it has chosen, the agent's name appears on the run card and in the header.

The primary specialist can then hand focused parts of the job to other agents. A specialist can hand work on once more, so delegation goes at most two levels deep.

Watch a run as it worksCopy Anchor Link

A run moves through these stages. The run card and the header show the status in lower case. The Run Inspector shows it with a capital letter, and its Progress rail calls the running stage Executing.

While a run works, its card stays open, the agent row shows active, and the page scrolls to follow new output. Each part of the run appears in the order it happens:

• Plan: a checklist pinned at the top of the run, with a count such as 2/5. A clock means the task hasn't started, a spinner means it is in progress, and a green tick means it is done. Done tasks are struck through, sometimes with a short note on how the agent checked the result. Simple requests may not get a plan.
• Thinking: the agent's reasoning, collapsed. Click Thinking to read it.
• Tools: each tool call shows the tool's name with a spinner while it runs and a tick when it is done. Several calls in a row are grouped. While the group works it names the tool in progress, for example project_search (3/5). When it is done it says Used 5 tools. Click a tool to see its Input and Result.
• Execution trace: a run of thinking and tool calls folded into one line, such as Execution trace 6 tools · 2 thoughts. Click it to expand.
• Specialist cards: when the agent hands work to another agent, a card shows that agent's name, the word specialist, the task it was given, counts of its tools, thoughts and responses, and running or done. The card holds the specialist's own steps and answer. Click a finished card to collapse it.
• Answer: the agent's reply, formatted with headings, lists, tables and code. Links open in a new tab.

Leave a run runningCopy Anchor Link

A run keeps working on Cooper's servers when you open another session, start a new one or close the page. A run can work for up to 35 minutes. When you come back to the session, Cooper picks up the live progress where it is.

Stop a runCopy Anchor Link

1. While the run works, click the square button (Cancel run) where Send usually is.
2. The run ends with the status cancelled and the message "Run cancelled by user".

Cancelling stops the agent. Anything it already created or changed in Cooper stays as it is. Check the run's tool calls to see what it did.

Read and review past runsCopy Anchor Link

Each run in a session is a card. The newest run is open. Older runs are collapsed to your request and the agent's name.

• Click the agent row (the agent's avatar and name) to open or collapse a finished run.
• Click the top of a card, where your request is, to select that run. The selected card is outlined and the Run Inspector shows its details.
• Scroll through the session. Cooper selects the run in the middle of the screen as you scroll, so the inspector always matches what you are reading.
• Click an attached image or file on a run to open it in a new tab.

Each card shows the avatar of the person who sent the message.

Find a sessionCopy Anchor Link

The left panel lists your workspace's 100 most recent sessions, newest first, grouped under Today, Yesterday, Previous 7 Days and Older. Each group shows how many sessions it holds. Each session shows its title (the first message sent in it), how many runs it has (for example 3 runs) and the time of its latest run.

To search, type in Search sessions.... Cooper matches the session title or the session ID and shows how many results it found. If nothing matches, you see No matches found. Click the x in the box to clear the search.

When your workspace has no sessions yet, the panel shows No sessions yet and "Start a run and Cooper will keep the orchestration history here."

Runs started from Claude or ChatGPT through the CooperBuild MCP server also appear here. All the runs started in one of those chats are grouped as one session. See Connect AI agents.

Attach files to a messageCopy Anchor Link

If a file shows Upload failed, it is not sent. Remove it and attach it again.

How the agent reads your files:

Attach folders to a messageCopy Anchor Link

Attach a Cooper folder when the agent should know what documents you have, for example a project's drawings or specs folder.

The agent receives a list of each folder's files: names, types, sizes and links, up to 60 of the newest files per folder. It does not receive the files' contents up front. It opens the files it needs with its tools.

Choose the AI model and cost limitCopy Anchor Link

Cooper remembers your model and cost limit in this browser, so they stay set the next time you open AI Team. They apply to every run you start from AI Team, and they take priority over an agent's own preferred model and default budget.

Keep track of what a run costsCopy Anchor Link

Every run starts with its own full cost limit. The limit is per run, not per session. Runs are paid for with your organization's own Anthropic or OpenAI API key.

You can see spending in three places:

• Next to the message box: a chip such as $25.00 / $23.40 left shows the running run's limit and what is left, or the last run's. It turns amber when a fifth or less of the limit is left. Hover over it to read, for example, "The last run used $1.60 of its $25.00 limit. Every run starts with its full limit." The plain $25 limit chip appears when no run has a cost yet, or when the setting for your next run differs from the last run's limit.
• In Run Settings: This run (or Last run) shows "$1.60 of $25.00 used", a progress bar and what is left.
• In the Run Inspector: open Usage. See Inspect a run.

When a run reaches its limit, it stops with the status failed and an error such as "Cost budget exceeded ($25.0312 >= $25 limit)". To carry on, raise the Cost limit (USD) and send the request again.

Inspect a runCopy Anchor Link

The Run Inspector on the right describes the selected run. If it is hidden, click the layout button at the top right of the middle panel (Open inspector). With no run selected, it says "Select or start a run to inspect orchestration state."

Click a section's name to open or close it. Plan and Execution open by themselves while the run is working.

Set up an automationCopy Anchor Link

AI Team runs when you send a message. To have an agent act on its own when something happens in Cooper, click Set up an automation in the left panel. It opens Automations. Runs started by automations are not listed in AI Team. You review them on the Automations page.

What agents can do in AI TeamCopy Anchor Link

• An agent works as you. It can only use the Cooper tools your role allows, and it can read and change records, such as creating tasks or updating an estimate.
• AI Team does not stop to ask you before each change. Say clearly what the agent may and may not change, for example "draft only, don't send anything".
• Cooper records the start and end of each run, with the agent's name, in your workspace's activity feed.
• A run stops after 35 minutes, when it reaches its cost limit, or when someone cancels it.

PermissionsCopy Anchor Link

Access is controlled by the AI Team permission in the Brain module of a role. An admin sets it in Settings → Roles.

Workspace owners can always open AI Team when the plan includes it. There is no separate setting for who can send messages or stop runs: anyone who can open the page can do both, in any session.

If you open /connect/ai without the permission, you see an Access Denied page. If your company's plan doesn't include AI Team, you see a screen saying AI Team isn't in your plan, with See plans for people who can change the plan.

Tips and best practicesCopy Anchor Link

• Start with the outcome and the scope: name the project, the records and what "done" looks like. "Create a procurement plan for long-lead items on Riverside Clinic, as a table with order-by dates" works better than "procurement help".
• Use an agent's trigger, such as /estimate, when you already know which agent should do the job. Triggers skip routing.
• Attach folders rather than many files when the agent should know what documents exist. It reads only what it needs, which keeps runs cheaper.
• Keep one topic per session. Follow-ups carry the session's earlier answers, which helps on the same topic and costs more on a long session.
• Set a lower cost limit while you try out a new kind of request. Raise it once the request works.
• Before you ask for changes to live data, ask for a preview first, for example "list what you would change, don't change anything yet".
• Share a session by copying its link (/connect/ai?session=<sessionId>) with a colleague who has AI Team access.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link

For AI agentsCopy Anchor Link

AI Team runs are called Orchestration V2 runs in the CooperBuild MCP server. An agent connected through MCP (https://api.cooperbuild.ai/mcp) can start, check, list and cancel them with these tools. They need the user's role to include Chat → AI Agents in Chat: Read for the read-only tools, Write for start_orchestration and cancel_orchestration.

How to use them:

• Call start_orchestration only when the user explicitly asks to start, run or kick off a background job. Each run spends the workspace's AI budget.
• If the user hasn't chosen a model, call get_available_providers, show the options and let the user choose. Omitting model lets the routed agent's preferred model apply, then claude-sonnet-4-6. Omitting costBudgetUSD lets the agent's default budget apply, then $25.
• Poll with check_orchestration until status is completed, failed or cancelled. The lifecycle is queued → routing → running → completed | failed | cancelled. result is filled in on completion.
• Don't pass a session ID. Cooper groups every run started in one MCP chat into one session, which then appears in the AI Team sidebar under the first request. Point the user to /connect/ai?session=<sessionId> using the sessionId the tool returns.
• To talk to an agent in the conversation ("@steve", "talk to the estimator"), use talk_to_agent, not start_orchestration. talk_to_agent answers as the agent straight away, with no run and no budget.
• Runs fired by automations are managed with the automation tools (list_orchestration_triggers, get_orchestration_trigger and related), not here. See Automations.

Common errors:

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Agents: set up the agents AI Team routes work to, including their mode, triggers and routing descriptions.
• Skills: the know-how agents load while they work.
• Automations: let agents act on their own when something happens in Cooper.
• Org Wiki and Knowledge Graph: what your agents know about your company and projects.
• Chat: talk to a named agent inside a conversation with colleagues.
• Connect AI agents: start AI Team runs from Claude or ChatGPT through the CooperBuild MCP server.
• Brain: overview of Cooper's AI section.