Documentation · Agents and work
Turn agents on and off
Start a site's agents by picking a plan, stop them and their spending with Off, and get them moving again after a pause for credits.
Each site has its own agents switch, in Settings under Agents. The plan is the switch: any plan above zero turns agents on, and Off turns them off. All your sites share one balance, but each site has its own plan.
How to tell if agents are on
| Where | On | Off |
|---|---|---|
| Settings, next to the Agents heading | On pill | Off pill |
| Home, status line | Agents on and "Budget:" with your plan, for example "Budget: Sprout · Standard work · 30 credits a month" | Agents off and "Budget: none, agents off" |
| Agents page, top of the page | No notice, or a notice saying why some work is waiting | "Agents are off. Pick a plan in Settings and they start." with an Open Settings link |
Home can also show Agents paused. That means agents are on, but your balance can't pay for the next job. See Paused for credits below.
Turn agents on
- Open Settings. The Agents tab opens first.
- Pick a plan card:
- Seedling: 10 credits a month, Basic quality.
- Sprout: 30 credits a month, Standard quality.
- Climb: 100 credits a month, High quality.
- Canopy: 300 credits a month, Best quality.
- Custom: type any whole number of credits from 0 to 100,000, then pick an hour, a day, a week or a month.
- Click Start agents.
The pill changes to On, and the text reads "Agents are working at the plan below: daily checks, reviews that research new keywords and content, and the fixes they write up for you to approve." The selected plan card shows a Current pill.
Each plan card shows what it buys on your site: Reviews, Pages per run, Whole site (how often agents get through all of it), Research (how widely it looks for new pages to add) and Credits used in a typical month. These numbers are worked out for your site's size. See Budgets for how to choose.
Agents spend from your prepaid balance. Check the balance line under the heading before you start: it says how many credits you have and whether auto top-up is on. With auto top-up off, agents pause when the balance runs out. Add credits on Billing.
The first time
If you've never turned agents on for this site, Settings shows a card that says Start your agents and Pick a plan and they start. If you picked a plan when you signed up, it is already selected, and the card says so. It isn't running yet. Agents only start when you click Start agents.
A new site you add to your account also starts with its agents off. It never starts spending at another site's plan.
You can also start agents during onboarding, if you skip the first report. See Your first report.
What happens right after
If the site has no report yet, agents first get to know it. The Agents page says "Agents are getting to know your site: crawling it, testing its pages in PageSpeed, working out what you sell and researching your searches. Regular checks and reviews start after that."
After that, the daily checks and regular reviews run on their schedule. The This week section on Home lists what's planned. Follow along on the Agents page.
Change your plan
- Open Settings.
- Pick a different plan card, or change the Custom amount and window.
- Click Save.
You see "Saved. Agents follow the new settings from their next job."
Changing the plan, or turning agents off and on again, never resets what agents have already spent against it. A fresh save doesn't give them a new allowance to spend at once.
Turn agents off
Turning agents off stops new spending on that site. A job already under way still finishes (see Work in progress below).
- Open Settings.
- Pick the Off card ("Nothing runs or spends. Reports still run.").
- Click Save.
The pill changes to Off. The text reads "Agents are off. Nothing runs or spends. Pick a plan below and they start. Reports still run."
Your credits stay in your balance. They are still there for this site later, for your other sites, and for reports.
What stops and what keeps going
| With agents off | |
|---|---|
| Reviews, check-ins and research | Stop. Nothing new starts. |
| Free daily checks (search numbers, site health, speed and crawl, indexing) | Stop too. They never cost credits, but they only run while agents are on. |
| Sitemaps and search engine pings | Stop. |
| Fixes you already approved | Wait. They stay approved and get built once agents are back on. |
| Ideas waiting for your OK on Approvals | Stay there. You can still approve or turn them down. An idea with no changes or new evidence for 14 days is still dropped, the same as when agents are on. |
| Before-and-after measurement of changes that already shipped | Keeps going. |
| Reports | Still run. A report you order is paid from your balance as usual. |
On the Agents page, every agent shows Waiting. On Home, Now says "Agents are off, so nothing runs and nothing is spent." with a Pick a plan to start them link. This week says "Nothing is scheduled while agents are off", or, if a shipped change is still being measured, "Agents are off, so nothing else is scheduled. Pip still measures the work that shipped."
Work in progress
Agents check the switch before they take on each job. A job they already took on when you turn agents off, whether it is running or about to run, still finishes, and its cost comes from your balance. Nothing new starts after it.
When you turn agents back on, they pick up where they left off: approved fixes get built, and reviews return to their schedule.
Paused for credits
Agents pause on their own when your balance can't pay for the next job. This is not the same as off: they are still on, and they start again by themselves once the balance covers the job.
What you see
- Home: an Agents paused pill, and a Needs you item: "Agents are paused until the balance covers the next job".
- Agents page: a notice like "Agents are paused: your balance is 2.0 credits and this job needs about 4.5. They start again when credits are added." with an Add credits link. Agents that do paid work show Paused.
- Email: "Your Ivy Link agents are paused". Before that, you get "Your Ivy Link balance is low" when about a week of work is left. You get one of each per dip, and none while auto top-up is on and working.
Scout, Root and Lumen keep running while you're paused. Their daily checks, sitemaps, crawls and speed tests are free.
Get agents moving again
- Click Add credits on the Agents page, or Top up on Home. Both open Billing.
- Add enough credits to cover the job named in the notice. Top-ups are $10 to $500, and 1 credit is $1.
- To stop this happening again, turn on auto top-up on Billing. When the balance can't cover the next job, auto top-up adds credits first. If that charge fails, agents still pause.
Agents start again on their own once the balance covers the next job. You don't need to save anything in Settings.
Agents never switch to cheaper work to fit a small balance. They wait until they can do the work at your plan's quality. See Credits and Billing.
Other reasons work waits
Not every waiting notice is about your balance. Agents also pace their spending across your plan's period, so you may see:
- "The budget is paced for now; more work starts in about 5 hours."
- "The budget is used for now; this job starts in about 2 days."
- "This work needs a budget of at least 100 credits a month."
Adding credits doesn't change these. The first two clear on their own as time passes. For the third, move to Climb or above, or a Custom budget of at least 100 credits a month. See Budgets.
On an Enterprise site
On a site with Enterprise, agents always run on Canopy and Ivy Link pays for their work. You can't change the plan; you can only turn agents on or off.
| Regular site | Enterprise site | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | You pick it | Canopy, locked. The plan cards are greyed out. |
| Turn on | Pick a plan, click Start agents | Click Turn agents on |
| Turn off | Pick Off, click Save | Click Turn agents off |
| Who pays | Your balance | Ivy Link |
| Pauses for credits | Yes, when the balance runs short | Never |
| Home status line | "Budget:" and credits left | Canopy (Enterprise) and Paid by Ivy Link |
Settings shows: "This site is on Enterprise: its agents run on Canopy and Ivy Link pays for their work. Ivy Link changes the plan if Enterprise ends."
Turn agents on or off on Enterprise
- Open Settings for the site.
- Click Turn agents on or Turn agents off.
After turning on you see "Your agents are on. They run on Canopy and Ivy Link pays for their work." After turning off you see "Your agents are off. Nothing runs until you turn them on again."
When agents are off on an Enterprise site, Home shows a Turn on link next to Canopy (Enterprise).
Starting and ending Enterprise
Starting Enterprise leaves agents on or off, the way they were. If they were off, click Turn agents on to start them.
When Enterprise ends, the site goes back to the plan it had before, with agents off. You get an email with the subject "Enterprise has ended". If you cancel in Settings and it ends right away, Settings shows "Enterprise has ended. Your agents are off and back on your earlier plan; turn them on when you're ready." Once you turn them on, their work is paid from your credits again.
Off is the safe default after Enterprise ends: nothing spends your credits until you choose to start agents again.
Related
- Budgets: what each plan buys and how pacing works.
- Credits: your balance, top-ups and auto top-up.
- Agents page: follow what each agent is doing.
- Meet the agents: who does what.
- Settings: everything else on the Settings page.
- Questions? Email hello@ivyl.ink.
Last updated October 31, 2026
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