11 Steps to Build a Viral ChatGPT Agent (The ‘Agent Mode’ Playbook)

Written by Sid peddinti

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11 Steps to Build a Viral ChatGPT Agent (The ‘Agent Mode’ Playbook):

You’ve heard the hype. People are taking a regular old ChatGPT, jamming it full of custom knowledge, giving it a personality, and turning it into a hyper-focused, money-making machine – what OpenAI officially calls a “Custom GPT” or what the internet often calls an ‘Agent’ or ‘Agent Mode’. Forget complicated coding or confusing API setups.

This is the simple, step-by-step guide to building and deploying your own automated sidekick. It’s seriously easier than setting up a new espresso machine.

We’re going to walk through the complete process: from figuring out what your agent should even do, to teaching it specific skills, to finally putting it out into the world so other people can use it.

Part 1: The Blueprint – Figuring Out Your Agent’s Superpower

The biggest mistake people make is trying to build an agent that does everything. A great agent does one thing really, really well.

Think niche. Think specific pain point.

Step 1: Define the One Killer Job for Your Agent:

Key Action: Pick a job that you hate doing, or one that someone else would pay to have done. If you’re building a personal assistant, what specific task do you wish was automated? If it’s a business tool, what’s the smallest, most annoying bottleneck?

• Bad Idea: “A general business coach.” (Too vague, regular ChatGPT does this.)
• Good Idea: “A LinkedIn Post Rewriter that uses the ‘Gary V’ style.” (Specific, clear outcome, high value.)
• Example Use Case: Creating a “Legal Document Summarizer” that only works with PDFs uploaded to it, translating the legalese into pure, simple English. We have one for you to test out to get an idea. Schedule a call and I’ll walk you through it.

Step 2: Get Your ChatGPT Plus Account Ready:

Please note: You need a paid account (ChatGPT Plus, Team, or Enterprise) to access the Custom GPT builder tool. This is non-negotiable right now, as it unlocks the “Agent Mode” functionality. This could change in the future – but in late 2025 – that’s what you need.

• Why it Matters: The builder interface is where you actually talk to the AI to create the other AI. Think of it as a special chat window where your answers become the code. It’s literally how you upload your brain into the bot.

Part 2: The Build – Teaching Your Agent How to Be Smart

This is the core of the process. You are essentially giving the AI two things: a Rulebook (Instructions) and a Knowledge Library (Data).

Step 3: Head to the Builder Tool and Start Chatting:

Key Action: Log into ChatGPT, look on the left-hand menu, and find the “Explore” section or “My GPTs,” and then hit the “Create a GPT” button. This takes you to the GPT Builder interface.

• The Conversation: The builder will ask you, “What would you like to make?” This is where you put your killer job from Step 1.
• Example Prompt: “I want to build an agent that is a YouTube SEO expert. Its job is to take a raw video transcript and generate 5 title ideas, 5 thumbnail concepts, and a full description optimized for trending keywords and clickbait hooks. It must maintain a friendly, casual, and energetic tone.”
• Pro tip: You can actually turn this prompt into a full-blown software application that you can even launch and sell down the line – that requires a different feature in ChatGPT to be triggered, but that prompt can start a line of thinking that can turn into a software.
• Here’s a quick look at a software application that we built using a much more detailed and complex version of that prompt that loops in Gary V, Alex Hermozi, Tony Robbins, and Mr Beast’s thumbnail styles, and also loops in the options that are found on Canva. Here’s the end result…
• Those details will be laid out in another post.

Step 4: Give It Strict Instructions (The Rulebook):

Key Action: The builder will start suggesting rules based on your initial prompt. You need to confirm and refine these. This is the most crucial part.

• Tone Control: Tell it exactly how to speak. Example: “Always respond in short, punchy sentences. Never use corporate jargon. Use emojis appropriate for a Gen Z audience.”
• Refusal Protocol: Tell it what NOT to do. Example: “If a user asks about anything not related to SEO, politely refuse and redirect them back to the video script analysis.”
• Response Format: Be a dictator about the output. Example: “The final output MUST be formatted using markdown lists with the headings: TITLES, THUMBNAIL CONCEPTS, and DESCRIPTION. Nothing else.”

Step 5: Load Up the Knowledge Library (Data Dump):

Key Action: Use the “Configure” tab next to the “Create” tab in the builder. Find the “Knowledge” section and upload specific documents.

• The Gold: This is where you upload PDFs of your company’s internal training manuals, a 100-page marketing strategy guide, 50 examples of your best-performing blog posts, or a legal dictionary.
• Why it Works: This data is now private to your agent. When a user asks a question, the agent searches only this knowledge base first, ensuring a highly relevant and specialized answer.

Step 6: Define Its Tools (Activating Superpowers):

Key Action: Also in the “Configure” tab, check the boxes for the capabilities you want your agent to have. These are your agent’s hands and feet in the real world.

• Web Browsing: Check this if the agent needs to look up current market prices, recent news, or verify facts online.
• DALL-E Image Generation: Check this if your agent is a “Logo Designer” or a “Thumbnail Concept Generator” (like our YouTube example).
• Code Interpreter: Check this if your agent needs to analyze data, plot graphs, or convert files (perfect for a “Data Analyst Agent” that takes a CSV file).

Step 7: The True ‘Agent Mode’ – Custom Actions (For Power Users):

Key Action: This step is optional but turns your GPT into a true autonomous agent by connecting it to outside systems. This is how you bridge the gap between AI chat and real-world software.

• What it Is: Custom Actions use an OpenAPI schema (a fancy word for a blueprint) to let your agent communicate with an external API.
• Real-World Example: You could connect your agent to a Trello API. A user says, “Create a new task for the marketing team to write a blog post about the new product.” Your agent sees this, uses the Trello Action, and the task automatically appears in the Trello board. This is true automation.

Part 3: Deployment – Launching Your Agent to the World

Once you’re happy with the testing, it’s time to give your AI sidekick a home.

Step 8: Test Everything in the Preview Pane:

Key Action: Use the chat window on the right side of the builder. This is your test lab. Give it hard prompts, try to break it, and see if it follows your rules from Step 4.

• Troubleshooting: If the response is too wordy, go back to the “Instructions” (Step 4) and add a rule like, “Responses must be under 150 words.”
• Refine the Name: Give it a memorable, SEO-friendly name. Not “My GPT 1,” but “Viral Headline Generator” or “Startup Idea Validation Bot.”

Step 9: Publish and Set the Visibility:

Key Action: Click the “Save” or “Update” button in the top right corner. You’ll be asked to choose how public your agent is.

• Option A: Only Me (Private): Great for a highly specific internal business agent, like a “Company Handbook Assistant” for new employees.
• Option B: Anyone with the Link (Unlisted): Perfect for sharing with specific clients or a closed-group community you manage. This is a common way to sell access to your proprietary agent.
• Option C: Public (In the GPT Store): This is how you go viral. Submit it to the official store to let millions of ChatGPT Plus users discover and use it. This is your path to potential passive income and massive exposure.

Part 4: High-Impact Agent Examples (What Goes Viral?)

To hit that viral stride, your agent needs to solve a painful, common problem. Here are three high-impact ideas built on the steps above.

Example 1: The ‘Bypass AI Detector’ Writer Agent:

Takeaway: This agent is built to address the user pain point of sounding like a robot. You upload a dozen examples of your personal, unique writing style (Knowledge, Step 5).

• Custom Instruction: “Analyze the user’s prompt, then rewrite the final output using a style and cadence that mimics the uploaded ‘Personal Style Guide’ documents. Always prioritize human-like variability, specific, non-generic details, and informal language.”
• The Value: Users pay for text that sounds authentic, not like a corporate memo.

Example 2: The ‘5-Minute Content Repurposer’ Agent:

Takeaway: This is a massive time-saver for anyone creating content. The user uploads a 4,000-word blog post (Data), and the agent handles the rest.

• Tools Activated: Web Browsing (Step 6) to check current social media trends.
• Custom Instruction: “For every blog post, generate the following three formats: 1. A 3-post Twitter thread with a strong hook in the first tweet. 2. A LinkedIn text-post in a professional, thought-leader tone. 3. Five TikTok video ideas, including the opening line and a suggested visual element.”
• The Value: It transforms one piece of content into fifteen, saving 5+ hours of manual work.

Example 3: The ‘Hyper-Niche Financial Coach’ Agent:

Takeaway: Instead of a generic financial bot, you create an agent for a specific demographic. E.g., The “Side-Hustle Tax Preparer.”

• Knowledge Load: Upload the last 5 years of common US tax codes specifically for 1099/freelance workers (Step 5).
• Custom Instruction: “The agent’s personality is a friendly but extremely conservative CPA. All advice must be framed with a warning about legal or financial risk. Focus only on deductions related to gig-economy income.”
• The Value: A highly specific, trustworthy, and unique tool that a generic bot cannot compete with.

Part 5: Next-Level Deployment and Monetization

Step 10: Offer It as a Service:

Key Action: Don’t just rely on the GPT Store. You can build a highly specialized agent and offer access to it as a premium feature for your coaching clients or as an internal tool for a small group of paying users.

• Monetization Example: A small consulting firm builds a ‘Client Proposal Generator’ agent loaded with all their successful past proposals. They charge a monthly fee to let their sales team or other small firms use it.

Step 11: Connect to Your Existing Software Stack:

Key Action: Use the Custom Actions (Step 7) to integrate the agent into your business’s existing workflow. This is where AI stops being a chat tool and starts running your operations.

• The Automation: An agent that watches a specific Slack channel, identifies a request for a new marketing graphic, and automatically drafts the design brief (using DALL-E) and sends it to the design team’s Asana board.

You now have a complete toolkit to go from a blank screen to a fully deployed, high-value AI agent.

Look, the biggest takeaway here is this: You don’t need to be a coder. You just need to be super clear on the one small, annoying task you want to automate, then use the builder to train your agent like a hyper-focused intern.

So, here’s the question for the comments: If you could build an agent to instantly take over one part of your daily job, what is the single, most tedious task you’d hand off?

If all this talk about Custom Actions, APIs, and deep integration sounds like something you want to get on – but need a few more people to go on the journey with you – join our complimentary workshop – link in the menu.

Thanks for reading,

Sid Peddinti, Esq.
Inventor, AI Innovator, IP Lawyer

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This guide is based on current ChatGPT functionalities, specifically the “Custom GPTs” feature, which is the platform’s official name for user-built AI agents. Access to the GPT Builder requires a paid ChatGPT subscription (Plus, Team, or Enterprise). Features like Custom Actions require a basic understanding of APIs and external software integration.

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