Set up and test Sydekick
How do I set up and test Sydekick?
Sydekick is part of your account, and most accounts have it set up for them. Open Sydekick → Agent to see its state. If it is ready you land on Home, with your usage and recent activity. If it is not, the Agent page tells you which step is left: Enable agent, a short wait while the workspace is built, Retry if setup failed, or Run test connection as the last check. Once it is ready, the real test is a small task: send it one, then check that the action appears in Audit logs and the credits appear in Usage & cost.
Key facts
| Where to check | Sydekick → Agent. The same state also shows in the Sydekick panel |
| The four set-up screens | Your agent isn't set up yet, Building your workspace, Your agent couldn't start, One step left |
| Ready | Agent → Home loads, with Usage & cost and Recent activity |
| The connection check | Run test connection pings the agent's health endpoint. It makes no language-model call and spends no credits |
| The real test | A small prompt in the Sydekick panel, then Audit logs and Usage & cost |
| Slack | Add to Slack (later Change Slack channel) on Agent → Home. One channel for the whole agency |
Steps
Open Sydekick in the left navigation, then Agent. If Home loads with the Usage & cost card, the agent is ready: go to step 5.
If you see Your agent isn't set up yet, select Enable agent. Enabling builds your own hosted workspace and connects your tools. It takes about a minute, and you can keep working while it builds.
While it builds, the page reads Building your workspace and says it is safe to navigate away. If it reads Your agent couldn't start, it shows the error and a Retry button. Retry once, and if it keeps failing, send the error text to Synup support.
If you see One step left, select Run test connection. It confirms the agent is up; success reads Agent is reachable, and the agent is then ready.
Select the Sydekick button in the top bar and give it one small, real job for a client you know, such as asking it to read something back about that client. Check the client and location it is working on before you send.
Open Agent → Audit logs and find the action, then check Agent → Home → Usage & cost for the credits it used.
If your team works in Slack, select Add to Slack on Agent → Home to choose where the agent posts.
The four set-up screens
Each screen appears on every Agent page and in the Sydekick panel until the agent is ready, so you are never guessing why a page is empty.
Your agent isn't set up yet means no workspace exists for your account. Enable agent starts building one. Enabling is refused for an account that has been archived or blocked, and for a self-serve signup that has not added a card yet.
Building your workspace is the wait. It usually takes about a minute, and the page picks up where it left off if you leave.
Your agent couldn't start means setup did not finish. The error is shown so you can pass it to Synup if Retry does not fix it.
One step left means the workspace is up and needs one connection check. Run test connection pings the agent's health endpoint to confirm it is up. It makes no language-model call and spends no credits.
If it says it is still starting up
Right after an agent is set up, or after Synup restarts it, you may see "Starting up your agent — this can take a minute or two after a deploy or restart. Retrying automatically…" on Capabilities. Leave it; it retries on its own. Saving a new skill restarts the agent, which takes about fifteen seconds. If the message is still there a few minutes later, reload the page and try again shortly.
On Capabilities, "Your agent isn't set up yet. Once it's ready, you can connect apps here." means the same thing as the set-up screen above.
What can stop a first message
- The agent is not ready. The panel shows the set-up screen instead of the chat.
- No credits, or the trial ended. The message says so. See agent credits and usage.
- All task slots are in use. The card reads All N task slots are in use, and your message is saved. A conversation waiting for your approval still holds a slot. You can Stop one, wait, or Upgrade plan. See parallel tasks and environments.
Send its work to Slack
Once the agent is ready, go to Agent → Home and select Add to Slack. After a channel is set it reads Change Slack channel.
The drawer first asks you to install the Sydekick app in your Slack workspace. Once it is installed, the drawer shows the workspace as Installed, the Primary channel picker with the channel currently mapped, and Channel connected when it is saved.
This is one channel for the agency, not one per client. Some older accounts see a different, manual version of this drawer that asks for Slack configuration tokens; ask Synup if you want the install flow instead.
What you'll see when it's done
- Agent → Home loads with Usage & cost and Recent activity instead of a set-up screen
- Sydekick answers in the panel
- Your first task shows in Audit logs, and its credits in Usage & cost
- Change Slack channel on Home once a channel is set
Watch out for
- A reply is not proof of data. A quick answer can still be about the wrong client. Check the Client and Location shown before you send, and the Scope control in the composer.
- Run test connection tests the connection only. It does not prove the agent can read your clients or post anything. The small real task does.
Questions people ask
It replied instantly but got the client wrong. Is something wrong with the setup?
Almost always that is scope, not setup. Check the client and location before you retype the question. See choosing a workspace and skill.
Who can enable the agent?
A signed-in team member on the account can select Enable agent. It is refused when the account is archived or blocked, and for a self-serve signup that has not added a card.
Does enabling the agent cost credits?
Setting up the workspace and the connection check use no credits. Conversations and tasks do. See agent credits and usage.