The beginner’s guide to AI agents
An AI agent is software you can hand a goal to. It plans the steps, uses real tools — a browser, files, email, code — and comes back with the finished result. A chatbot answers questions. An agent gets things done.
ChatGPT Work, Codex, Claude Cowork, Claude Code, Manus, Hermes, and OpenClaw are agents you can start using today. This guide helps you pick one, set it up, and give it the one thing agents still lack: a safe way to pay.
Find the best three venues for our 12-person offsite and draft the invite email.
Searched 40+ venues near the city
Shortlisted 3 that fit the budget
Drafted the invite with dates
Done — the shortlist and draft are ready for your review. Want me to send the invites?
From tool to teammate
For decades the computer has been a box of tools — you open each one and do the work yourself. Agents flip that relationship: you describe the outcome, and the computer carries it out. It’s the biggest change in how we work with computers since the internet, and it’s happening now.
01
Triage email, schedule meetings, chase reminders — the recurring chores that eat your mornings.
Go through my inbox: draft replies, archive the noise, flag what needs me.
02
Deep-dives that used to take an afternoon come back as a tidy memo with sources.
Find the best flight-and-hotel combo to Lisbon under €600 in October.
03
Websites, scripts, spreadsheets, small apps — even if you have never written code.
Build a one-page site for my studio and put it online.
04
With MagicPay your agent can finish the job at checkout — book, order, renew, subscribe. You set limits and approve payments; your card details stay hidden from the agent.
Renew my domain and order more coffee beans.
You don’t need to reorganize your life to start. Hand an agent one small task, check the result, and expand what you delegate as trust builds. The skill of delegating well — clear goals, sensible permissions, a quick review — compounds faster than any single tool.
Honest tradeoffs, no universal winner
New AI agents launch every month — there are dozens. These five are the ones we recommend today: proven, actively developed, and all working with MagicPay. They differ in where they run, how much setup they need, and how much control you get.
Best for
Your first agent, and everyday research and documents.
Best for
Your real files and folders, and serious coding.
Best for
Polished deliverables with zero setup.
Best for
An always-on assistant you own and shape.
Best for
Full ownership and endless customization.
Every agent here works with MagicPay — each setup guide below ends with a one-prompt install.
Just want to try one?
ChatGPT Work
You may already have it in your ChatGPT plan.
You work with code?
Claude Code or Codex
Terminal-native and repository-aware.
Want zero setup?
Manus
Runs in the cloud — works from your phone.
Want to own it?
Hermes or OpenClaw
Open source, self-hosted, endlessly customizable.
From zero to first payment
Pick your agent below. Each guide takes a few minutes: get it running, hand it one real task, then add MagicPay so it can pay — with your approval — whenever a task reaches a checkout.
Download the ChatGPT app for your computer or phone — or just open chatgpt.com — then give Work a goal instead of a question.
Get the ChatGPT app ↗Pick something you actually need this week and let the agent run with it. Review the result before trusting it with bigger jobs.
Compare three project-management tools for a five-person team and write me a one-page recommendation.
Paste this prompt into the ChatGPT app and let it run — it sets up the MagicPay skill and walks you through account creation and top-up.
Under the hood the setup runs through Codex, ChatGPT’s built-in coding agent. You can also do it in the terminal: npm install -g @openai/codex, then paste the same prompt there. Prefer the technical path? Read the connect-agent guide.
Official sources: chatgpt.com ↗ Codex ↗
Download the Claude desktop app and point Cowork at a folder of real files. It handles multi-step work across documents and applications.
Download Claude ↗Give it a job with files you can check afterwards, and approve its permission requests one at a time.
Here is a folder of invoices — build me a spreadsheet of amounts, due dates, and who I still owe.
Paste this prompt into the Claude app and let it run — it sets up the MagicPay skill and walks you through account creation and top-up.
Under the hood the setup runs through Claude Code, Claude’s coding agent. You can also do it in the terminal: install it with curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash, then paste the same prompt there. Prefer the technical path? Read the connect-agent guide.
Official sources: Download Claude ↗ Claude Code ↗
Sign up at manus.im and start a new task. Describe the outcome you want rather than the steps to get there.
Open manus.im ↗Ask for a deliverable whose sources and result you can verify, then check what Manus produced before reusing the workflow.
Research the best CRM options for a small design studio and build me a comparison page.
Paste this prompt into a Manus task. It installs the MagicPay tools in the workspace and saves the operating instructions, so future tasks can pay too.
Prefer the technical path? Read the connect-agent guide.
Official sources: manus.im ↗ Manus docs ↗
Download Hermes Desktop from the official site, or install the CLI with the one-line installer. The guided setup connects a model provider and gets the agent running.
Hermes install guide ↗curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash Start with a recurring chore — the kind of task a persistent assistant is best at — and check the first few results.
Every morning, check these three news sites and message me a five-line digest.
Paste this prompt into Hermes. It installs the Hermes-native MagicPay skill, then walks you through account setup and top-up.
Prefer the technical path? Read the connect-agent guide.
Official sources: Hermes installation guide ↗
The one-line installer sets everything up and starts the onboarding wizard — pick a model provider, then verify the Gateway in the Control UI before adding channels.
OpenClaw getting started ↗curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash Try a small task in the Control UI first, then pair Telegram or another channel once the core agent behaves the way you want.
Watch my calendar and remind me in Telegram 30 minutes before every meeting.
Paste this prompt into your OpenClaw workspace. The agent installs the MagicPay skill through OpenClaw or ClawHub and verifies the payment workflow.
Prefer the technical path? Read the connect-agent guide.
Official sources: OpenClaw getting started ↗
The earlier you start, the more it compounds
Agents get noticeably better every month — and the people learning to delegate now are building the advantage: describing goals well, judging results, knowing what to hand off. Pick an agent, give it one real task today, and give it a way to pay.