> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.rydhm.ai/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.rydhm.ai/_mcp/server.

# Create an expert

Admins create experts from **New expert**, on **Home** or the **Experts** page. It offers four ways in. Whichever you pick, you land in the expert's settings afterwards, where you can change everything.

| Way                       | Best when                                                                           |
| ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Describe it**           | You know what the expert should do and want Rydhm to write the first version.       |
| **Start from a template** | Your job matches a common one: a front desk, support, sales, collections, a survey. |
| **Build from scratch**    | You already have instructions written, or want full control from the first line.    |
| **Import from JSON**      | You exported an expert from Rydhm and want a copy here.                             |

## Describe it

#### Write the brief

Choose **New expert** → **Describe it**. Under **What should your expert do?**, describe the job in up to 4,000 characters. The starter chips (**Lead qualification**, **Appointment booking**, **Customer support**, **Product consultation**, **Meeting co-pilot**) fill in an example brief you can edit.

#### Add documents and a website (optional)

**Attach documents** adds files to the expert's knowledge: PDF, Word (.docx), Markdown, text or CSV, up to 5 files and 8 MB in all. **Website (optional)** gives Rydhm a site to research.

#### Build

Choose **Build expert**, or press Ctrl+Enter. A timeline shows each step: reading your brief, researching on the web, naming it and writing its greeting, writing its instructions, choosing a voice and languages, saving what it learned, and creating the expert. It usually takes about a minute.

**Stop** cancels the build. If a build fails, nothing is created: choose **Edit description** or **Try again**.

#### Meet your expert

When it is done you see its name, voice, languages and knowledge, plus a few test questions. Choose **Talk to** *name* to call it, **Chat** to type to it, or **Open settings** to review it. **Build another** starts over.

## Start from a template

Choose **New expert** → **Start from a template**. Each template is a ready expert for a real job, with instructions, a greeting, a voice and languages. Narrow the list with **Kind** (**Inbound**, **Outbound**, **Meetings**), the language and industry filters, or **Search templates**. **Hear greeting** plays the template's opening line. **Use template** creates the expert and opens it.

## Build from scratch

Choose **New expert** → **Build from scratch**. Enter a **Name** and, optionally, **What it does** (one line shown on Home, the public page and in the directory). Choose **Create expert**. The expert starts blank: write its [persona](/experts/persona) next.

## Import from JSON

Choose **New expert** → **Import from JSON**, then paste, drop or upload a file exported from an expert's settings (**⋯** → **Export as JSON**).

> **Info**
>
> An export carries the expert's name, description, instructions, greeting, voice settings and tool settings. It does **not** carry knowledge documents or secrets: a custom tool arrives without its secret header values and asks for them again.

To copy an expert inside the same workspace, use **⋯** → **Duplicate** instead. The copy is a draft until you make it live.

## Find your way around the editor

Open an expert from **Experts** to reach its settings. The header shows its picture, name, status and description, with these actions:

![The expert editor for Ava: header actions, the tabs and the Test panel](/_fern-files/_img/c531dee7f2a0a36cd98d0fad94d2ced1181d27e515f139297d3d8e74ce3a8a84.webp)![The expert editor for Ava: header actions, the tabs and the Test panel](/_fern-files/_img/09363c0807ab589b944a051f4289e7774f7b2cc87c11561204a6830df6bd5c1d.webp)

* **Coach**: reviews this expert's conversations and suggests changes.
* **Test**: opens the [Test panel](/experts/versions#test-unsaved-changes).
* **Call**: the expert's phone number, and calls it places for you. See [Phone](/channels/phone).
* **Send to meeting**: sends the expert into a meeting. See [Meetings](/channels/meetings).
* **Make live**: decides who can talk to it (**Draft**, **Live** or **Live and listed**) and gives you the share link and the website widget code. Once the expert is live, the button reads **Live**. See [Share links](/channels/public-links).
* **⋯**: **History**, **Copy link** and **Copy expert ID** for everyone; **Duplicate**, **Export as JSON** and **Delete** for admins.

Below the header are eight tabs:

| Tab           | What you set there                                                                                             |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Profile**   | Name, description, **Active** switch, avatar and background; first message and persona; variables; guardrails. |
| **Knowledge** | Files, website imports, questions and answers, shared knowledge, and **Try a question**.                       |
| **Voice**     | Voice, languages and style (the engine and its models under **Advanced**); voice controls; call experience.    |
| **Tools**     | Built-in and custom tools, conversation control, outside tool servers and hand-offs.                           |
| **Phone**     | The expert's number, outbound calls, transfers and voicemail.                                                  |
| **Meetings**  | How it behaves in Google Meet, Zoom and Teams.                                                                 |
| **Share**     | Public link, phone number at a glance, website widget, and access for other AI.                                |
| **Analysis**  | What callers ask and how conversations go.                                                                     |

Changes on **Profile**, **Voice**, **Phone** and **Share** wait for **Save changes** (on a phone, **Save** in the bar at the bottom of the screen). **Knowledge**, **Tools** and **Meetings** save on their own, as you make each change.

## Gotchas

* **Only admins create, make live and delete.** Members see admin-managed tabs read-only, marked with a lock.
* **Your plan limits how many experts you can have.** See [Billing](/workspace/billing).
* **Deleting an expert that answers a phone number** is refused until you give the number to another expert, or release it, in **Settings** → **Phone numbers**.
* **Two people editing at once is safe.** A save sends only the fields you changed. If a teammate saved the same field in the meantime, Rydhm asks: **Keep mine and save** or **Use theirs**.
* **Leaving with unsaved edits asks first**: **Keep editing**, **Save and leave** or **Discard changes**.

## Related

* [Persona and first message](/experts/persona)
* [Voice engines](/experts/voice-engines)
* [Knowledge overview](/knowledge/overview)
* [Versions and testing](/experts/versions)