Lifecycle & status
A managed agent moves through a series of statuses over its life, from first provisioning to running to (eventually) deleted. The dashboard shows the current status, and the available controls change with it.
Status
Section titled “Status”Every agent has a single status. For managed agents, it reflects both the host and whether the agent is connected to Alfe.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| pending | The agent has been created and is waiting to be provisioned. |
| provisioning | Alfe is creating the host, issuing credentials, and preparing the agent. |
| starting | The host is up and the agent is booting and connecting. |
| running | The agent is fully online and connected — ready for requests. |
| stopping | The agent is shutting down gracefully. |
| stopped | The agent is powered off. It keeps its identity and can be started again. |
| rebooting | The agent is restarting. It keeps its identity and credentials. |
| failing | The agent is up but not connected — Alfe is trying to recover it. |
| failed | The agent couldn’t recover and needs to be recreated. |
| billing_suspended | The agent is paused because of a payment issue. It resumes once billing is resolved. |
| waitlisted | Capacity for the requested size is temporarily unavailable; Alfe keeps retrying automatically. |
| deleted | The agent has been removed. |
A self-hosted agent instead shows active when it’s set up, since you manage its process yourself.
An agent is only running when it’s both up and connected to Alfe. If the host is alive but the agent isn’t connected, it shows failing while Alfe works to reconnect it — you don’t need to do anything for transient blips.
Power actions
Section titled “Power actions”You control a managed agent from the dashboard. Which actions are available depends on the agent’s current status.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start | Powers a stopped agent back on, or recovers one that’s stuck. |
| Stop | Gracefully shuts the agent down. It keeps its identity and can be started again later. |
| Restart | Restarts the agent without changing its identity or credentials. |
| Recreate | Rebuilds the agent from scratch on a fresh host. Use this to recover a failed agent or to change size. |
Recreate is a clean-slate rebuild — the agent comes back with a new host and new credentials. Because it’s destructive, the dashboard asks you to confirm by typing the agent’s name.
A note on billing and deletion
Section titled “A note on billing and deletion”- A managed agent pauses, rather than deletes, when there’s a payment issue or your credit pool runs dry. It resumes automatically once you top up or resolve billing.
- Deleting an agent is a soft delete — the agent stops and is marked deleted, and its data is retained for a grace period before removal.
- You control when an agent starts, stops, or restarts. Alfe only pauses a running managed agent on its own when its subscription lapses (see billing).
For the ideas behind billing and the credit pool, see Core concepts.