This article helps you fix a Coffee agent that isn't behaving as expected such as no delivery, a missed trigger, a partial run, or a missing starter agent. Some fixes need an Admin or Owner role. This is noted where relevant.
Why didn't the agent post to Slack or send an email?
Open the agent and check Notifications.
If Slack is off or unavailable, your workspace isn't connected to Slack. Connect it, or turn on Email instead. See Integrating Coffee to Slack.
If Slack is on, check that a channel is selected. An agent saved with no Slack channel and no email delivers nothing — it still runs, but no one hears about it.
If Email is on, check the recipient list. An empty recipient list emails the record's owner. If that's not what you wanted, add specific teammates instead.
Agents can only email teammates in your workspace. They can't send to an external address. Only an agent built with the "Email the contact" action can reach the record's own contact directly.
After you fix the notification settings, run Test to confirm the agent now shows a delivery target before you save it. See Testing an agent before you turn it on.
Why didn't the agent run when expected?
If the agent runs on a schedule, check the time you set. Schedules run on the hour, not the minute. A schedule set for 9:30 AM runs at 9:00 AM.
Check your timezone under Settings > Personal.
If the agent runs on an event, confirm the event actually happened in Coffee — for example, a deal changing stage or a meeting ending.
Check whether the agent is paused. A paused agent shows a Resume button on its row. An active agent shows an Active badge instead.
Once the schedule, timezone, or trigger is corrected, the agent runs at its next scheduled time or the next time its event occurs. It does not run retroactively for time that already passed.
Why didn't a new contact or company trigger the agent?
The Contact created and Account created events fire only for records created directly in Coffee by a person, the Coffee API, Zapier, or another connected tool.
They do not fire for:
Bulk CRM sync
CSV imports
Merged contacts
Contacts Coffee creates automatically from email and calendar activity
If you need an agent to catch every new record regardless of how it arrived, build it on a schedule instead of on one of these two events. See Agent triggers and schedules.
Why did the agent only review some of my records?
A scheduled agent reviews up to 500 records per run. If your workspace has more open records than that, the agent reviews a sample instead of all of them.
Click Test on the agent.
Check the test result for a warning stating that only part of your pipeline was reviewed. The same limit applies to a live run.
If you see that warning, add a condition to the agent's prompt — for example, "only open deals" or "only deals closing within 30 days" — so the records that matter most are always included in the sample.
See Testing an agent before you turn it on for what else a test result shows.
Why is a starter agent missing from Starter ideas?
A starter agent only appears in Starter ideas if your workspace has what it needs to run. The table below lists what each affected starter needs, so you can check what's missing before contacting support.
Starter agent | What it needs |
Report Watchdog, Attribution Goblin | A saved report in the workspace |
Renewal Reaper | A renewal-date field on companies |
EBR Robotnik | A review-date field on companies |
Power User Paparazzi, Expansion Oracle | Product usage tracking connected |
See Starter agents by role for the full starter catalog and what each one does.
Why can't I create or edit an agent?
If the build box at the top of the Agents page is hidden, your role is Read only. Ask an Admin or Owner to change your role.
If you're a Member, you can create and manage your own private agents, but not workspace agents. Ask an Admin or Owner to create a workspace agent, or to change an existing agent's visibility from private to workspace.
If you're a Member, you can see workspace agents in the list, but you can't edit or pause them. This applies even for those you built yourself before an Admin made them workspace-wide.
Only Admins and Owners can create or manage workspace agents. See Building custom AI agents for the full role and permission breakdown.
Why did Test say the agent can't do something?
Your prompt is asking the agent to do something outside what Coffee agents support. For example, sending a text message, updating a field that syncs from your CRM, or posting somewhere the agent has no access to.
Rewrite the prompt around an action agents can actually take, such as reading records, notifying a channel or teammate, drafting a message, creating a task, updating a Coffee custom field, or creating and managing campaigns.
If you're not sure what's supported, start from a starter agent close to what you want and adjust its prompt instead of writing one from scratch.
See What agents can read and do for the full list of supported actions and data.