When Cloning the "Main Agent" and Switching Models from Cloned Sub-Agents – System Reports Missing API Key Despite Pre-Configuration

[chalitbkb]

What happened?

I have raised questions about the Agent issues multiple times, but the problems continue to persist. After cloning the "Main Agent," I encountered issues when switching models post-cloning. Specifically, when I changed the model from "o3-mini" to "DeepSeek," it prompted me for the API Key again, despite having already configured it. I tried switching to chat with the main model that isn't an Agent and used the DeepSeek model just like the Agent, and everything worked perfectly. This has been very frustrating, and I hope the project owner can investigate and resolve this issue promptly.

Additionally, there are problems related to the Agent's knowledge base. I have noticed that sometimes the uploaded files disappear from all Agents, including the Main Agent. However, I observed that even though the files are missing, they are still stored but not being utilized. The knowledge base I’m referring to is the pink box area where files are uploaded. This causes interference issues that affect other Agents, and I’m unsure why this happens. Ultimately, users have to re-upload the database to "attach the knowledge base to the Agent." There should be an option to use existing files. Please note that selecting existing knowledge is unrelated to the "Agent Chain (Mixture-of-Agents)" because their purposes differ. Using Agent Chain involves integrating knowledge bases from other Agent Chains, but for this issue, existing knowledge bases cannot be used. Users need to upload the knowledge anew, which is not an ideal solution. There should be an option to use existing files, which I have previously posted about. Therefore, I request the team responsible for this area to thoroughly inspect and test it again. This is a rather delicate issue that requires careful testing.

-- Please revisit this section of the explanation again. --

#6359 (comment)

it would become cumbersome and require multiple steps if users have to carefully press that section you're mentioning when interacting with agents. It should be integrated to simplify the process and reduce the number of actions needed. Good management should consolidate it.

Furthermore, when we want to share Agents with other users, don’t forget that users won’t be able to access the database because the files aren’t bundled with the Agents. Only the uploader who owns the Agents can use them. This means that shared Agents are useless because they aren’t connected to the uploaded knowledge base files. Even if files appear for selection on the user side who received my shared Agents, users won’t know which knowledge to select, which could lead to confusion in various situations.

Version Information

grep librechat

Steps to Reproduce

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Chrome

Relevant log output

Screenshots

Try switching back to the main chat model instead of "again"; it works well.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[danny-avila]

I'll address each of your points soon, you wrote a lot in one report.

My intuition tells me that part of what you're experiencing is a symptom of the hosted environment you are using, so details on that would help.

Also, please share the relevant parts of your librechat.yaml config, as that may help diagnose the issue.

None of the reported issues can be reproduced on my end.

[danny-avila]

Issue 1: Model Switching Problems After Cloning

• User cloned a "Main Agent"
• When switching from "o3-mini" model to "DeepSeek" model, the system requested API key again

Can't reproduce

chrome_gfn3hgpnXB.mp4

Note, the provider I chose for the "clone" requires the user to provide their own key. If you have the api key set to user_provided, they must first provide it on their endpoint setting.

Potential Improvements

• Enhance UX by making the user provided api key setting more apparent when using agents.

Issue 2: Knowledge Base Management Problems

• Uploaded files sometimes disappear from all Agents, including the Main Agent
• Files appear to be stored but not properly utilized
• This references the "pink box area" where files are uploaded
• Users have to re-upload files to connect them to Agents
  • Maintainer note: not expected behavior, for files that are already attached to the agent
• There's no option to reuse existing files across Agents
  • Maintainer note: Files directly attached to agents are only available to those specific agents

Can't reproduce

You might be experiencing this due to lack of file persistence in your deployment environment, or configured file strategy. Any details on this would help diagnose the issue.

Files are not "disappearing" for me, but I will monitor this behavior over the next 48 hours to fully confirm over a period of time.

Potential Improvements

• Make agent-exclusive files (for file search + code interpreter) more obvious that they can't be attached to chats or other agents
• More involved: allow re-usability of these files

Issue 3: Agent Sharing Limitations

• When sharing Agents with other users, the knowledge files aren't bundled with the Agent
• Even if files appear selectable to recipients, they wouldn't know which knowledge to select

Can't reproduce

This is a shared agent, using a file attached by the author of the agent:

Issue 4: Agent Chaining using existing "knowledge bases"

While using the agent chain, agents can successfully use already attached files, I could reproduce the issue where currently attached files to the conversation were not observed by the agent:

Using attached files to the agent directly

Using attached files to the chat, not the agent

Potential Improvements

• This will be resolved with future updates to the agent chain feature