Can developers work in code instead of the canvas?

Yes. A developer who would rather not draw on a canvas can keep the agent as a file. The file is the same agent the operator sees in Agency Studio, not a parallel implementation of it. A developer edits the file, an operator draws the canvas, and both are working on one design that publishes as one version.

The point of offering both is that desks and developers describe work differently. The operator who owns a claims desk thinks in the sequence of the work: the packet arrives, read these, decide this, wait here, call that. A developer thinks in a form they can diff, review, and check in. Agency gives each of them their form and keeps the two from being different things.

What the file is for

Review. A developer can read the whole agent in a form that fits a pull request, see exactly what changed between one design and the next, and comment on a specific step. The canvas shows the same change, but the file shows it in a way a developer's review habits already handle.

Source control. The file lives in whatever repository the site uses, inside the segment on an air-gapped site. The history of the design is the history of the file. Publishing freezes a version on the appliance; the repository keeps the lineage of drafts that led to it.

Generation. A developer can produce the file, or parts of it, with their own tooling rather than drawing each step. The generated file is still the same design, opens on the canvas, and publishes as a version within the same bounds.

What the file cannot do

The file does not escape governance. It can only name models the admin has allowed and tools the admin has made available. It cannot remove the step that waits for a reviewer before anything is sent, spent, or changed. A version published from the file carries bounds exactly as a version published from the canvas does.

Nor does the file produce a different kind of agent. There is one run sequence on the appliance, one stable address per agent, one live version at a time. A developer's agent and an operator's agent are the same agent, and the record of what it did reads the same way.

How a site tends to divide the work

On a small desk, one person is often both operator and developer, drawing on the canvas when that is faster and editing the file when that is. On a larger site, a central team of developers prepares and reviews files for several desks, and each desk's operator publishes and points the address, because the operator owns the outcome.

Either arrangement works because nothing has to be translated. The developer's file is the operator's canvas. For the longer treatment, see /resources/canvas-and-file-are-one-design.