Choosing an Agent

Every AI conversation is owned by one agent. The default is Ora, the general-purpose orchestrator that dispatches sub-tasks to specialists (TestBuilder, Execution, TestDesigner, Simulation, TestGenerator) behind the scenes. For focused work you can start a conversation with an expert agent instead — a specialist you talk to directly, without the orchestrator in between.

Quickest scenario: starting a conversation with an expert

1. Open the Ora panel.
2. Under the input box, use the agent picker (the left-hand of the two drop-downs, next to the send button) and choose an expert — for example Norma. Each entry lists what that agent does, so you can choose without leaving the panel.
3. A new conversation starts with that agent. Type your question and work with it directly, turn by turn.

note

The agent is fixed for the lifetime of a conversation. To work with a different agent, pick it in the Agent picker — this starts a new conversation. Your previous conversation is saved automatically and stays available in the conversations drawer.

Norma

Norma is an interactive ISTQB test-design expert — norma is the Latin for rule or pattern, and the name is the same in every language. It works in two modes:

• Design with material — when your API spec is loaded, it locates the operation, derives input domains, and proposes test cases with coverage rationale (equivalence partitions, boundary values, pairwise combinations, decision tables, state transitions, MC/DC, and more). On your confirmation it can apply the design as a data source for a data-driven test case: it generates the data rows, attaches the data source to a step, and maps columns to request parameters.
• Pure theoretical design — describe business rules or field constraints without a spec, answer its clarifying questions, and get a structured design plus ready-to-import CSV data rows.

tip

The CSV rows it produces are standard RFC 4180 tables — use them as an Aethrix data source or as an external data provider in your CI pipeline.

Coming back to Ora

While in an expert conversation, the strip under the input shows a Continue with Ora button. It opens a fresh orchestrated conversation pre-loaded with a summary of what you discussed, so Ora can take over tasks the expert does not handle itself — for example creating test cases and steps from a design Norma produced.

Use it whenever your request goes beyond the expert's scope: Norma designs tests and wires data sources, but it does not run tests, fill request bodies, or configure simulations — that is Ora's job with its specialists.

Detailed reference

Agent	Entry point	Best for
Ora (orchestrator)	default	Everything: request filling, test automation, execution, simulation, multi-step work
Norma	Agent picker	Test design analysis, coverage techniques, data-driven case design, CSV artifacts

Additional rules that apply to expert conversations:

• Conversation switching, renaming, pinning, and search work the same as for orchestrated conversations.
• Slash commands that manage orchestrator context (/compact, /drop-oldest, /branch, …) are inert in expert conversations; /clear starts a fresh conversation with the same agent.
• The model and thinking-effort drop-down applies to expert conversations too, and can be changed mid-conversation — effort is the submenu inside it, shown for models that support it.
• Tool confirmations behave identically: risky tools ask for your approval, and "Allow all in this session" applies to the whole conversation.
• The agent picker lists the orchestrator and the built-in experts. Ora's internal specialists (TestBuilder, Execution, TestDesigner, …) are dispatched on its behalf and are not offered here.