Users Can't See or Share Agents Despite Enabled Admin Settings

[Schinter]

Issue: Admin Settings - Agents
In the Admin Settings - Agents section, there is incorrect behavior regarding settings for the USER role.

Current Settings
If the following options are enabled in the Admin Settings for the USER role:
Allow sharing Agents to all users
Allow creating Agents
Allow using Agents

Use Case 1:
A user with the USER role selects the "Assistants" block.
The user can see the list of assistants loaded from the database.
The user can create new assistants (even though the settings pertain to agents, not assistants).
The newly created assistant becomes visible to the user with the ADMIN role.

Use Case 2:
A user with the USER role selects the "Agents" block.
The user does NOT see the list of previously created agents.
The user with the USER role can create new agents.
The newly created agent does NOT become visible to the user with the ADMIN role.

The Problem
A user with the USER role cannot see previously created agents even when the Allow using Agents option is enabled.
A user with the USER role can create new agents, but those agents are not visible to the ADMIN user.
The Allow sharing Agents to all users setting does not properly enable visibility of existing agents to USER role users.

[danny-avila]

Let me clarify how the system works:

1. The Admin Settings for Agents only control permissions - what actions users with certain roles can perform (creating, using agents, etc.)

2. Agents and Assistants are two different features:

• Agents are a custom-built framework
  • Agents are entities built from the UI that require explicit sharing, because they are created by unique authors. This is unique to LibreChat.
• Assistants are based on the OpenAI Assistants API implementation
  • Assistants are inherently shared because they stem from the same OpenAI account as a closed, remote framework

3. For Agents specifically:

• They must be explicitly shared using the share button (found in the builder UI, next to Save)
• 
• The "Allow sharing Agents to all users" setting only enables the ability to share, it doesn't automatically share existing agents
• Each agent needs to be individually shared using the share dialog, where you can choose to "Share to all users" and set editing permissions:
• 

So to use an existing agent, the owner needs to explicitly share it using the share function. Just enabling the permissions in Admin Settings doesn't automatically make all agents visible to users - it only gives them the capability to use agents once they've been shared with them.

Does this help clarify how the permissions work?

[danny-avila]

A user with the USER role cannot see previously created agents even when the Allow using Agents option is enabled.

Correct, this is expected, as only explicitly shared agents should be visible.

A user with the USER role can create new agents, but those agents are not visible to the ADMIN user.

Correct, this is expected, as only explicitly shared agents should be visible, as agents are inherently private to their author

The Allow sharing Agents to all users setting does not properly enable visibility of existing agents to USER role users.

It would only enable visibility of existing agents if they were explicitly shared

[Schinter]

Thank you for the clarification! Everything is now clear, and the explanation was very helpful. I appreciate your quick response and assistance!

I noticed an issue for the USER role when interacting with the settings panel:
When a USER clicks on the "Parameters" block, nothing opens, but the other blocks below it (e.g., "Attach Files," "Bookmarks") shift downwards.

Could you confirm if this is expected behavior or a bug? If it’s a bug, do you have any recommendations for resolving it?

[ppatayane]

For agents, parameters are present inside model parameters (part of agent creation itself). Main parameters menu is not needed here as far as I understood.

[danny-avila]

As @ppatayane suggested, it's not needed here, so the Parameters showing is a bit of a UI bug. I will make sure to clean that up by next release, thanks @Schinter