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Modifying Existing Crews

This guide walks you through extending or modifying existing crews to customize their behavior.

Once you understand how Techies crews are structured, you can start customizing them to better suit your needs.

This guide walks you through how to safely modify an existing crew, override agents or tasks, and extend behavior using local configuration files.

Step 1: Dump a Crew for Editing

To begin, choose a crew to modify and dump its configuration:

techies dump hierarchy_crew_v2

This creates a folder named hierarchy_crew_v2/ in your current working directory containing:

  • agents.yml
  • tasks.yml
  • crews.yml

These files represent the full configuration of the crew and can now be modified locally.

Step 2: Make Your Modifications

You can now open and edit the dumped YAML files:

  • agents.yml — change agent goals, tools, or backstory
  • tasks.yml — adjust instructions, expected output, or execution flow
  • crews.yml — change task order, crew members, or iteration limits

Any matching agent/task/crew key defined locally will override the system version automatically.

Step 3: Run the Modified Crew

After editing, run the crew from the same directory:

techies run hierarchy_crew_v2 --game word2048

Techies will prioritize the local files over built-in definitions when resolving the crew configuration.

How Overrides Work

Techies loads configurations in the following order by default:

  1. Built-in system definitions
  2. Definitions in the current working directory

If an agent/task/crew key is found in both, the local version takes precedence.

Step 4: Control Crew Discovery with TECHIES_RUNTIME

You can override the default discovery behavior using the TECHIES_RUNTIME environment variable.

Overrides CWD and System

When defined, Techies will only use the paths listed in TECHIES_RUNTIME to load definitions — and skip built-in and CWD.

export TECHIES_RUNTIME=/absolute/path/to/custom_crews

Make sure to use absolute paths. Relative paths like ./my_crews will not be included unless you're working from that directory.

Include Built-Ins Manually

To include built-ins alongside your custom definitions:

export TECHIES_RUNTIME=$(techies get_runtime_path):/absolute/path/to/custom_crews

This restores access to all predefined crews while allowing you to layer your overrides.

Path Priority

Paths are evaluated in order. Later paths override earlier ones if the same keys are defined.

Best Practices

  • Always dump a crew before modifying — never edit built-ins
  • Use _common blocks and anchors to avoid duplication
  • Use unique, descriptive keys when creating new agents or tasks
  • Use absolute paths in TECHIES_RUNTIME
  • Run from a clean working directory for each crew

Example: Modify an Agent

  1. Dump a crew:

    techies dump hierarchy_crew_v2

  2. Edit agents.yml:

    hierarchy_architect_v2:
  goal: |
    In addition to XML, also generate a summary in Markdown format.
  tools:
    - write_file
    - read_file
    - markdown_parser

  3. Run the crew:

    techies run hierarchy_crew_v2 --game pong

Your local changes will be picked up automatically.

Resetting to Default

To revert to the original system version of a crew:

  • Delete the local <crewname>/ folder
  • Or unset/remove the TECHIES_RUNTIME variable

Modifying Agent Definitions

One of the most common customizations is changing which tools an agent has access to.

  1. Open the dumped agents.yml file
  2. Locate the agent you want to modify
  3. Add or remove tools from the tools list:
my_modified_agent:
  goal: |
    Search for information and analyze data.
  backstory: |
    A research specialist with data analysis skills.
  tools:
    - read_file
    - write_file
    - list_files
    # Add other tools here

Need more specialized functionality? You can also create custom tools and make them available to your agents.

See Also