> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.augmentcode.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Best Practices for Custom Experts

> Build effective Cosmos Experts with maintained templates, simple workflows, and iterative human feedback.

1. **Check whether you need a custom Expert.** Ask [Cosmos Advisor](/cosmos/advisor/overview.md) for a [Template Expert](/cosmos/experts-templates.md) from the Cosmos knowledgebase before building your own. Augment maintains the templates and optimizes their cost and quality.

2. **Lean on Cosmos Advisor.** Use it throughout setup and iteration to configure Experts, Environments, integrations, and Automations correctly, and get best-practice recommendations.

3. **Prefer one agent per end-to-end task.** Cosmos agents can reliably execute long sequences of instructions; splitting one workflow across an orchestrator and multiple workers is usually an anti-pattern that adds cost, coordination bugs, and debugging complexity. Delegate only for a clear need, such as keeping an event-listening agent responsive while independent tasks run.

4. **Optimize quality before cost.** Start with the model Cosmos Advisor recommends, typically a mid-range model. Get reliable results first, then test lower-cost options against the same quality bar.

5. **Roll out small and iterate.** Test on real tasks, deploy to a few users, and collect feedback. Inspect failures and improve context, prompts, or configuration until the output meets the standard you'd expect from a human doing the work.

6. **Keep humans in the loop.** Humans remain responsible for outcomes and judgment calls; agents often lack architectural and business context. Ask for input on choices such as frontend versus backend implementation, or whether backward compatibility matters for a product with no external users.


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