Hero Shards
Summon one hero as a shard: a solo specialist with its own agent, model, and persona. No party, no quest, just the right specialist for the task in front of you.
A hero is a saved agent persona — a role (UI/UX, Backend, Reviewer, QA), a personality, stat modifiers, and a system prompt, paired with its own agent and model. Until now, heroes lived inside crystl Quest: you summoned a whole party that coordinated in a shared chat.
Hero Shards let you summon just one. Click the summon-a-hero button next to the shard + in any gem, pick a hero from your roster, and it opens as a standalone shard — its own agent, model, and persona — ready to work. No party to assemble, no chat to manage.
Flip the isolated (own git worktree) toggle and the hero works on its own branch in an isolated shard, so it never collides with your other sessions. It's the lightweight path: when you don't need a full Quest, you reach for the one specialist that fits.
You don't even need the panel. With the crystl CLI enabled, your agent can spawn hero shards for you — just ask it to summon the heroes you want on the models you want, and it does the rest.
Why it matters
Summon a solo specialist
Pick a hero — Wizard (UI/UX), Rogue (Backend), Bard (Reviewer), Monk (QA), and more — and it opens as a shard with its own agent, model, and persona already applied.
One click from the shard bar
Launch from the summon-a-hero button right next to the shard +. No party setup, no quest panel — a specialist shard in a single click.
Optional isolation
Toggle isolated and the hero gets its own git worktree and branch, so it can work in parallel without touching your other shards' files.
Your whole roster, solo
Every hero you'd add to a Quest party — plus local project heroes — is available to summon on its own. Same specialists, no party required.
Ready to try it?
Create a free account and download crystl for macOS.
get started getting started guide →Frequently asked questions
- How is a Hero Shard different from a Quest?
- A Quest summons a party of heroes that coordinate as peers in a shared chat. A Hero Shard summons a single hero as one standalone shard — no party, no chat orchestration. Reach for a Hero Shard when you just need one specialist.
- How do I launch a Hero Shard?
- In any gem, click the summon-a-hero button next to the shard
+in the shard bar. Pick a hero from the grid and it opens as a new shard. - What does the hero bring to the shard?
- Its own agent, model, and persona — the role, personality, stat modifiers, and system prompt the hero is configured with. The shard starts already set up as that specialist.
- Can a Hero Shard run isolated?
- Yes. Toggle isolated (own git worktree) when you summon, and the hero gets its own worktree and branch — the same isolation as any isolated shard.
- Where do the heroes come from?
- Your hero roster — the same one Quest uses — plus any local project heroes defined in
.crystl/heroes/. Browse the hero catalog in the Library. - Can my agent summon hero shards for me?
- Yes. With the crystl CLI enabled (a Guild feature), ask your agent to summon specific heroes on specific models and it spawns the shards for you — no panel needed. The exact commands live in the CLI reference.
Crystl's Book of Spells
Master crystl with a grimoire of powerful prompts. Summon heroes, assemble a party, revive shards, and complete epic quests.
open the book →More features
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History Navigator
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Workbench
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Prompt Integration
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Project Optimizer
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Cavrn
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Remote Development
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crystl Quest
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Screenshot Bar
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Copy Bar
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