Agents overview
An Istari Digital Agent runs on a host machine — a VM or a physical workstation — that has your engineering tools installed. It registers once with the platform, then runs the jobs users submit from the web app or Python against the modules installed alongside it. One agent can host multiple modules, so choose the host OS to match the tools you need: check each module's Prerequisites before you pick a machine.
You install your first agents right after the platform itself, and you return to these same pages later — every time a new workstation, VM, or newly deployed tool needs to run jobs.
Install an agent
Each page below carries one host all the way from an empty machine to a proven agent — prepare the host, install the package, give the agent its key, start, confirm it registered, then put Open Text on it and run a job. That last step uses an open-source module so you can test the agent without a licensed desktop tool.
| Host | Guide |
|---|---|
| Windows 10, 11, Server 2019, Server 2022 | Install the agent on Windows |
| RHEL 9, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Install the agent on Linux |
| macOS on Apple Silicon | Install the agent on macOS |
Install the control plane first (Install). You need administrator rights on the host and an administrator account in the Istari Digital Platform. Every install takes the same two downloads: the agent package from the Customer Portal, and the agent's key from the web app. Plan about an hour per agent.
Decide which account will run the agent before you start. The agent reads its configuration and credentials from that account's home directory, so setting them up as one account and starting the agent as another is the most common reason a fresh install never appears in the web app. On macOS and Linux the package itself installs as root — that is fine, since the binary is executable by everyone — but the key and configuration belong to the account that runs the agent.
Once the agent is online, the OS guide ends by deploying Open Text (portal name textract) and running @istari:extract on a small .txt file. Unpack, publish, and grant access use the Connect how-to: Module deployment. Add Open PDF and Open Spreadsheet the same way if the team needs everyday documents.
Beyond the first install
- Agent configuration reference — every key in
istari_digital_config.yaml, where the file lives on each OS, and how to edit it safely. - Agent keys — register a key from the web app, rotate a key, or migrate an agent off a deprecated PAT.
- Agent multi-tenancy — run agents for more than one tenant.
- Trusting the Windows installers — how the Windows packages are signed, why SmartScreen warns on each new release, and how to admit them to a managed Windows fleet.
- Proxy configuration — forward-proxy environment variables and TLS-inspecting proxies.
- Troubleshooting — logs, diagnostics, and the failures reported most often.
Versions and conventions
These pages assume the most recent agent version, with compatible versions of the platform and of any modules you install; the release notes list the exact numbers. Where a filename contains X.Y.Z, substitute the agent version you downloaded — for agent 11.7.1, istari_agent_X.Y.Z.exe is istari_agent_11.7.1.exe. Angle brackets mark values you supply, as in <variable_value>.
If you get stuck, contact support@istaridigital.com.