Plexara
What you will take away from this lesson
A board briefing is rarely one dashboard. It is a dashboard, plus a written summary that leads with the takeaway, plus the underlying CSV in case someone wants to pivot, plus a methodology note for the auditor. Article 303 was about sharing one of these. Article 304 is about packaging several of them so the recipient opens one link and sees the whole story in order.
The packaging unit is a collection. It has a name, a description, an ordered list of sections, and a list of asset references inside each section. You can build one two ways. The agent can assemble a collection during the same session it produced the assets, which is usually the faster path. Or you can build one by hand on the portal Collections page from assets you have already saved. This article covers both.
Learning Objectives
- 01Describe what a collection is in Plexara: a named, ordered set of sections, each holding a list of asset references, with its own description and share controls.
- 02Build a collection two ways: ask the agent to assemble one during the session that produced the assets, or build one by hand on the portal Collections page.
- 03Read the six Manage Artifact actions for collections (create_collection, list_collections, get_collection, update_collection, delete_collection, set_sections) and predict which one the agent will pick.
- 04Recognize that set_sections is a full replacement, not an append, and write prompts that respect that.
- 05Share a collection the same way you share a single asset (covered in 303): one link, the recipient sees the whole briefing.
Where this lesson sits in the curriculum
301 built assets, 302 produced exports, 303 covered sharing one of them. 304 is about bundling several into one navigable thing your stakeholders can open from a single link.
300 Series: getting more out of Plexara
- 301Creating reports and dashboardsHow to ask the agent for shareable work product instead of chat that scrolls away. The habits that decide whether your dashboard survives next week.
- 302Exporting dataWhen you need a spreadsheet a teammate can sort, or a data file for another system, instead of a view.
- 303Sharing your workTwo ways to share: a user share to a named teammate, or a public link anyone with the URL can open. Three controls on either: expiration, notice text, revocation.
- 304Creating collectionsBundle a dashboard, a summary, and the underlying data into one navigable briefing. Build it during the session via the agent, or by hand on the portal's Collections page.
- 305Editing what you already haveUpdate an asset in place so shared links keep working and history stays on one record. Metadata edits do not bump the version; content edits do; revert is append-only.
- 306How an asset was builtThe audit trail Plexara records at the MCP boundary: which tool calls the agent invoked, with what parameters, in the producing session. Captured at save time, readable by you or the agent.
- 308Reproducible promptsSave the starting instruction as a first-class prompt with named arguments via Manage Prompts (manage_prompt). Re-run it later with different values. Personal, persona, or global scope. What re-running does and does not guarantee.
The 300 series is practical recipes for working with Plexara day to day. It assumes the mental model from 205.
Why a collection is the right unit for a briefing
Most analyses end up in more than one shape. The dashboard answers the click-around questions. The summary answers the executive who only has two minutes. The CSV answers the analyst who wants to pivot the numbers herself. Sending three links separately puts the burden of assembly on the recipient. A collection moves that work to you, once, where you can also decide what order makes sense for whoever you're sending it to.
What a collection gives you that a single asset cannot
One link for the whole briefing
Stakeholders open one URL. They see the dashboard, the summary, and the data in the order you chose. No "see also" emails with three additional links to chase.
Order is part of the message
A briefing for an exec usually leads with the takeaway and tucks the supporting data at the end; an analyst opening the same set of assets would prefer the data up front. Sections let you author that order rather than hope the recipient reads in it.
Findable as a unit
A collection shows up on the Collections page as a single named entry with its own description. Search finds it; share controls apply to the whole thing; revocation cuts access to all the contained assets at once.
What a collection is made of
A collection has three nested pieces, with hard caps that exist mostly so a collection that is trying to be a full project does not pretend it is a single briefing. The panel below names each piece and the caps that apply.
What a collection is made of
Collection
Description up to 50,000 characters.
The outer container. Has a name, a description for context, and an owner. Sharing applies to the collection as a whole, not to individual sections inside.
Section
Up to 50 sections per collection. Title up to 255 characters, description up to 10,000.
An ordered group inside the collection. Has a title and an optional description that the recipient reads as the section heading. Sections render in the order you set; the recipient navigates them like a document table of contents.
Item
Up to 100 items per section.
A reference to an asset inside a section. The collection does not duplicate the asset; it points to it. Updating the underlying asset updates what the collection's viewers see next time they open the section.
The collection is governed and shared like any asset: same owner-only mutations, same Share dialog from 303, same revocation. Article 305 covers editing existing assets (including assets inside a collection).
Two ways to build one
Both paths produce the same kind of collection, which is good: a teammate sharing one with you cannot tell which path you used. The agent path is faster when the assets came from the conversation you are still in. The portal path is the right one when you are bringing together work you already saved, especially when section order is something you want to see on screen.
Two ways to build a collection
Ask the agent during a session
- When to pick this
- You just produced the assets in the same conversation. The agent has them in working context and can bundle them in one prompt.
- How it works
- The agent calls Manage Artifact (manage_artifact) with action=create_collection, plus an initial sections array containing the asset_ids it just produced. One round trip; one new collection.
- Example
- "Bundle the Q3 regional dashboard, the exec summary, and the Southwest transactions CSV into a collection called Q3 2025 Board Briefing. Put the dashboard in section 1 (Overview), the summary in section 2 (Takeaways), and the CSV in section 3 (Source Data)."
Build it by hand in the portal
- When to pick this
- The assets you want to combine were produced over time, sit in your Assets page already, and you want fine-grained control over section structure as you assemble them.
- How it works
- Open the Collections page, click New Collection, name and describe it, add sections, drag in assets from your Assets list, save.
- Example
- Click New Collection; name it "Q3 2025 Board Briefing"; add three sections; pick assets from the asset picker; reorder by dragging.
The agent path is usually faster when the assets came from the same session. The portal path is the right one when you are assembling old work, or when section order matters enough that you want to see it on screen while you build.
The six agent actions for collections
When the agent works on a collection, it is calling Manage Artifact (manage_artifact) with one of six action values. You almost never need to know these by name, but they show up in tool-call logs, in the audit trail, and in any conversation with an administrator about who did what.
The six Manage Artifact actions for collections
action=create_collection
Creates a new empty collection (or one with initial sections if you pass them). Returns collection_id and a portal URL.
The agent calls this when you ask for a new collection.
action=list_collections
Returns your collections, with name, description, owner, timestamps. Supports search and pagination.
The agent reaches for this when you ask 'do I already have a collection for X?'
action=get_collection
Returns one collection by collection_id, with all sections and the asset references inside each.
The agent reads a collection before modifying it, so the next set_sections call respects what is already there.
action=update_collection
Changes the name or description of an existing collection. Does not touch sections.
You renamed the briefing, or want to add context to the description.
action=set_sections
Replaces the entire section structure of a collection with the one you pass. Not additive.
You are adjusting which assets are in the collection, or re-ordering sections. Important: the agent must first get_collection if it intends to preserve existing sections.
action=delete_collection
Soft-deletes a collection. The collection becomes inaccessible; the underlying assets are untouched.
You are done with the briefing and want it out of your Collections list.
You almost never name these actions in a prompt; the agent picks the right one from your wording. The names matter when you read the agent's tool-call log and want to recognize what just happened.
The one mechanic that surprises people
Every other Manage Artifact action is intuitive. set_sections is different because it is a full replacement rather than an append. Knowing this changes how you phrase a follow-up prompt that adds or re-orders sections.
What this looks like in practice
A short session that builds a collection from three assets the agent just produced, then comes back later to add a fourth section without losing the first three. The second turn is the one that demonstrates the prompt pattern that respects set_sections.
Build a collection, then add a section without losing the first three
You
I have three assets from today: the Q3 regional sales dashboard, the Q3 exec summary, and the Southwest transactions CSV. Bundle them into a collection called Q3 2025 Board Briefing. Section 1 is Overview (the dashboard), section 2 is Takeaways (the exec summary), section 3 is Source Data (the CSV). Add a one-paragraph description that says this is the package for the May 20 board meeting.
Agent
Done. I created the collection with all three sections in the order you specified.
Collection: portal/collections/{collection_id}
Sections: Overview (1 asset), Takeaways (1 asset), Source Data (1 asset).
The collection inherits the same Share controls as an individual asset. To share with the board, open the collection in the portal and use the Share dialog from 303.
You
Actually, add a fourth section at the end called Risks, with the refund-rate anomaly investigation we did last month. Keep the first three sections as they are.
Agent
I read the current collection so I would not lose the first three sections, then replaced the structure with all four. The order is now Overview, Takeaways, Source Data, Risks. The refund-rate investigation is the only item in the Risks section.
Same collection URL, no change required on any share links that already point to it.
The second turn is the one that teaches the most. The user said “keep the first three sections as they are” explicitly; that single phrase is what steered the agent to read the collection first and then call set_sections with the full list. Even a default-trained agent benefits from the reminder.
Building one by hand on the portal
Sometimes the work you want to bundle is old: a dashboard from last quarter, a report from a different analysis, a CSV someone else produced. The agent never had these in a single session and cannot bundle them in a single prompt. The portal Collections editor exists for this case.
Building a collection by hand
- 01
Open Collections, click New Collection
From the portal sidebar, open the Collections page. Click New Collection. The editor opens with a name field and an empty section list.
- 02
Name and describe the collection
The name shows up on the Collections page and in search. The description is the briefing context the recipient reads before navigating into sections. Use it to say what this collection is for and who it is for.
- 03
Add sections; drag assets into each
Click Add Section to create a section, name it, optionally describe it. Open the asset picker and drag in assets from your Assets list. You can re-order sections and items within a section at any point.
- 04
Save
The collection is now in your Collections page. It has a portal URL like /portal/collections/{id}. From here, share it the same way you share a single asset.
The portal collection editor is the right tool when you are assembling old work or fussing over section order. Once it is shaped, share it via the same dialog from 303.
Prompting tips for the agent path
Three small phrasings make the agent path consistently produce what you wanted. None of these require knowing how Manage Artifact works internally.
Prompting tips for the agent path
Name the sections in the prompt. "Section 1 is X, section 2 is Y" routes the agent straight to set_sections in the right order. "Put them in some sensible order" routes the agent to a guess.
Say "keep the existing sections" when you only want to add. Without that phrase, the agent may interpret a follow-up edit as a full replacement and lose work.
Name the collection memorably. The Collections page lists collections by name. "Q3 2025 Board Briefing" survives next quarter; "Briefing" does not.
Limits
The caps are generous enough that you should rarely think about them. They exist so a collection that is genuinely trying to be a full project of its own gets caught before it becomes one.
What 305 covers
A collection wraps assets. Eventually one of those assets needs to change: a number revised, a chart updated, a sentence rewritten. 305 covers editing existing assets in place through Manage Artifact action=update, including how the platform preserves earlier versions and how to roll back without breaking the share links you already gave to people.
Key terms
Six terms cover the vocabulary of collections. The first three are the structure. The next two are the agent actions that come up most often. The last one is the portal surface where collections live.
Key Terms
- Collectioncol_*
- A named, ordered set of sections, each holding asset references. Has its own description, owner, share controls, and portal URL at /portal/collections/{id}.
- Sectionsec_*
- An ordered group inside a collection, with a title and optional description. Up to 50 sections per collection. Title up to 255 characters; description up to 10,000.
- Itemitem_*
- An asset_id reference inside a section. The collection does not copy the asset; it points to it. Up to 100 items per section.
- create_collection
- Manage Artifact (
manage_artifact) action that creates a new collection. Accepts name, description, and an optional initial sections array. Returns collection_id and a portal URL. - set_sections
- Manage Artifact action that replaces the entire section structure of a collection. Not additive: whatever was there before is gone. The agent should get_collection first if it intends to preserve existing sections.
- Collections page
- The portal page that lists your collections with name, description, owner, and creation date. New Collection opens the editor for building one by hand.