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STAIR FAQ
Read the page as Markdown for LLMsShort answers to common STAIR questions about agents, tools, models, API access, security and operations, each linking to the full page.
FAQ
What is an agent in STAIR?
An agent is a configured AI assistant: a model, optional purpose, boundaries and instructions, plus toolsets, skills and sub-agents. You call it by name from STAIR Chat, the API, workflows or schedules. See AI Agents.
Which agent fields are required?
Only Agent Name, Description, Model, Owner and Manage Access are required. Agent Purpose, Boundaries and Instructions are optional Markdown fields. See AI Agents.
What is the difference between a toolset, a tool and a skill?
A toolset connects one MCP server to STAIR, and each tool is one operation that server offers. A skill is a reusable instruction package (a SKILL.md plus optional files) that tells an agent how to do a task. See Toolsets and MCP Tools and Agent Skills.
How does an agent delegate work to other agents?
Add existing agents on the Sub Agents tab and keep the Delegation capability on. The agent can then hand tasks to those sub-agents. See AI Agents.
How do I add a new MCP server to STAIR?
Find the server in the MCP Catalog and either Deploy it as a server instance and create a toolset on that instance, or use Add Toolset for a hosted endpoint. Then add the toolset to an agent. See MCP Server Catalog.
Which LLMs can STAIR use?
STAIR connects to model providers of the types Open AI, Open Router, Azure OpenAI, vLLM, Ollama and Custom. An Admin adds the provider on the Providers tab of Models, then registers its models. See LLM Models.
How does STAIR estimate the cost of agent runs?
Each model can have an Input price, Output price and Cached input price in USD per million tokens. The Usage tab of agents and models uses these prices; an empty price means no cost. See LLM Models.
Can I call a STAIR agent from my own application?
Yes. STAIR offers an OpenAI-compatible API: send POST /ee/v1/chat/completions with the agent name as model, and authenticate with an aip_sk_ API key. See OpenAI-Compatible API.
How do I get an API key?
Create a personal key in the user menu under Connections → Tokens, or ask an Admin for a service account key. Each key is shown once and must have an expiration date. See API Keys and Service Accounts.
Can external MCP clients use STAIR tools and agents?
Yes: an MCP Gateway exposes selected toolset tools and agents as one MCP endpoint. MCP clients authenticate with the STAIR-API-KEY: aip_sk_… header. See MCP Gateways.
Who can use a given agent?
The agent's ACL decides: users, teams and service accounts with Execute Access can use it, and Read, Write and Manage Access control viewing, editing and administration. See Security and Access Control.
Does the LLM provider see personal data?
Not when the agent has Handles personal data turned on. STAIR replaces the selected PII entity types with placeholders such as <PERSON_1> before the LLM call, and fails the request if the PII detector is unavailable. See Security and Access Control.
Where are credentials such as provider API keys stored?
In Secrets, where values are masked and each secret has its own ACL. Per-user toolset credentials stay with each user under Connections → Toolset. See Secrets.
How do I find out who changed something?
Open Activity Log, or choose Show History on a record. Each entry shows the person, the operation and the exact changes. See Security and Access Control.
Can agents run automatically?
Yes. A schedule runs an agent or a workflow on a cron expression, in a chosen time zone, between a start and an end date. See Scheduled Agent Runs.
How do I chain several agents into one process?
Build a workflow: a graph of STAIR Agent, Condition, Notification and Action nodes, where later nodes can use earlier nodes' outputs. See Agent Workflows.
How do I test that an agent answers correctly?
Create an agent evaluation with scripted requests and evaluators, run it and track the pass rate. Compare runs shows what changed between two runs. See Agent Evaluations.
Can I move agents between STAIR installations?
Yes. Data Transfer exports selected records, optionally with their dependencies, into a ZIP bundle that another installation imports. See Data Transfer.
Where do end users chat with agents?
In STAIR Chat. Users pick an agent in the message composer, attach files, organize chats in folders and share a chat by public link. See STAIR Chat.