Modelos: save, apply, duplicate, export and import a bot's configuration

Overview

A Modelo — the name the screen uses for a saved bot configuration — is a bot's setup stored for reuse: persona, instructions, language model, enabled tools, guardrails, handoff policy, service sequence and everything else you tuned.

The library lives in Settings → Bots, just below the bot list — and it shows up even when the account has no bot yet, because importing a Modelo is one of the ways to get your first one.

Read this before migrating: a Modelo is not a complete copy of the bot. Two classes of thing are left behind by design — secrets and local references. Whenever something is saved, exported or imported, the What did not travel panel states exactly what was removed or cleared. Never assume "100% imported".

Prerequisites

• Maestro enabled and at least one configured bot (or a Modelo file to import).
• Administrator permission to save, duplicate, edit, delete, export and import.
• To import on another installation: administrator access there too.

Step by step

Save a bot as a Modelo

1. Go to Settings → Bots and open the bot that is already the way you want it.
2. Under Quick-start templates, use Save as Modelo.
3. Fill in Name, and optionally Vertical (optional) and What is this Modelo for? (optional). Name it after the use case, not the client.
4. Confirm with Save Modelo. It appears at the top of the Modelos list.

Careful — there are two behaviours, and the dialog tells you which one applies:

• The bot is already saved: it stores the configuration the bot is currently running, not unsaved edits on the form. If you just changed something, save the bot first.
• The bot does not exist yet: since there is no bot, the configuration on screen is stored as it is.

Apply a Modelo to a bot

This is the path from Modelo to bot — duplicating creates no bot at all.

1. Open an existing bot, or start creating a new one.
2. Under Quick-start templates, open the Vertical agent picker. Your account's Modelos (and the installation library's) appear in front of the product's ready-made presets.
3. Pick the Modelo and use Apply. The notice tells you how many settings it brought in: applying merges only the fields the Modelo carries — the rest of the form stays as it was.
4. Review the configuration, save the bot, and attach it to the inboxes where it should work.

Find, duplicate, edit and delete

1. Use the Search Modelos field to filter by name, description or vertical. Clear search brings the full list back.
2. Duplicate creates a copy of the Modelo in this account, already editable (the notice confirms: "Duplicated as …"). That is how you customise a Shared Modelo, which is read-only.
3. Edit changes Name, Vertical and Description — the stored configuration is not touched. To change the configuration itself, apply the Modelo to a bot, tweak it, and use Save as Modelo again.
4. Delete removes the Modelo from the library. Bots created from it keep working: a Modelo is a starting point, not a link.

Export and import between installations

1. On the Modelo, choose Export. The browser downloads a .maestro-template.json file.
2. On the target installation, use Import and pick the file.
3. Read the "What did not travel" panel — it lists, item by item, what was removed or cleared.
4. Reconfigure whatever the panel flagged (keys, teams, knowledge base, media).
5. Apply the Modelo to a bot, review it and save.

Settings & options

Two scopes: account Modelos and the installation library

The list shows both together, and they behave differently on purpose:

• Account Modelos — the ones you saved, duplicated or imported. They are editable and can be deleted.
• Installation library — they carry the Shared badge and are read-only: they offer no Edit and no Delete. To customise one, use Duplicate: the copy lands in this account, editable, leaving the original untouched.

Publishing a Modelo to the whole installation is a platform operator action and has no path in the account panel: the effect crosses every account on the box, and restricting is reversible while unpublishing from the world is not.

The "What did not travel" panel

It appears after you save, edit, export or import a Modelo, and lists only what could not be carried — references re-matched by name are left out, so the panel stays worth reading. Dismiss closes it.

What NEVER travels: secrets

Neither the values nor the names. A secret's name is already a map of where the credentials live.

These are removed when saving to the library and on export:

• The bot's provider keys and the mirror of the account's native keys.
• Registered secrets and the list of their names.
• Credentials typed literally inside HTTP tools and MCP servers — headers such as Authorization, Cookie, and any field whose name looks like api_key, token, password, secret.
• A credential embedded in the URL (https://user:password@host/...). Only the user:password is removed; host, path and query stay so the tool remains reconfigurable.

The policy is a denylist: everything travels except what is named as a secret or a local reference. A new field whose name looks like a credential is stripped automatically. That way the possible mistake is "too little travelled", never "a secret travelled".

One important and useful exception: a reference in the form {{secret.NAME}} survives — it points at a secret, it is not one. On the other side you just register a secret with that name and the tool works again without rewriting anything. Always use that form in HTTP tools.

What does NOT travel: local references

team 7 on the target installation points at a team that does not exist — or, worse, at a different team. So every reference is exported as the name it had, re-matched by name on import, and cleared when nothing matches. Nothing is invented: a bot pointing at team 1 just because 1 exists is worse than a bot with no team.

A capability whose backing resource could not travel arrives disabled on purpose: leaving it on would ship a bot that answers "I checked our knowledge base" against an empty one.

The file

• Extension .maestro-template.json, carrying a format marker and a version.
• A file without the marker is not treated as a Modelo: it is refused, not guessed at.
• A version this installation does not know is refused too — never half-read. A half-read Modelo is a bot that looks configured and is not.

Use cases

• Standardise service — one "Tier 1 support" Modelo applied to several bots.
• Try a variant — duplicate the Modelo, apply the copy to a test bot and compare.
• Staging → production — configure calmly on staging, export and import.
• Agency / multi-client — one Modelo per vertical, exported and imported into each account.
• Configuration backup — export before a large change.
• Installation migration — carry your bots over without reconfiguring everything by hand.

Tips, limits & best practices

• Always read the "What did not travel" panel. It is your to-do list on the other side.
• After importing, run a real test conversation before putting the bot on live traffic.
• Prefer {{secret.NAME}} over pasting the credential: it is the only form that survives the trip.
• Name Modelos by use case ("Clinic — booking"), not by client.
• Edit does not change behaviour: it only touches the label (name, vertical, description).
• Duplicate before experimenting — that way the Modelo that already works stays intact.
• A Modelo is a snapshot: changing the bot afterwards does not update the Modelo, and vice versa.

Troubleshooting

• "I duplicated it and no bot appeared" — duplicating copies the Modelo, it does not create a bot. To get a bot, open the bot's form, apply the Modelo under Vertical agent, save, and attach it to the inboxes.
• "This Modelo has no Edit and no Delete" — it comes from the installation (Shared badge) and is read-only. Use Duplicate to get an editable copy in this account.
• "A Modelo with this key already exists" — you are importing a file that is already in the library. Duplicate the existing one instead, or rename it before importing again.
• "The file was refused on import" — it is not a valid .maestro-template.json, or it was produced by a version this installation cannot read.
• "The bot hands off to the wrong team" — no team existed under the same name; the panel marked it cleared. Create the team and select it.
• "It says it checked the knowledge base and found nothing" — the base arrives off and empty. Re-ingest the content and enable it.
• "The HTTP tools return authentication errors" — credentials do not travel. Register the secrets on the target.
• "The media is missing" — the files do not travel; re-upload them in the target's media library.
• "I applied the Modelo and not everything changed" — applying merges only the fields the Modelo carries, and the notice shows how many settings came in. The rest stays as the form already had it.

See also

• What Maestro AI and the Account Brain are
• Where each bot is used
• Knowledge base and ontology
• DeepSeek as a model provider for your bot
• Maestro tools by module