How should I choose Scout, Operator or Squad for a Cloudways AI agent?
The short answer
Choose by concurrent work and measured resource needs. Cloudways positions Scout for light testing, Operator for regular workloads and Squad for more simultaneous tasks. Its current public-preview guidance says resizing is unavailable, so verify that restriction before launch.
In more detail
Cloudways’ sizing guide distinguishes testing from regular production use and heavier concurrent work. The guide also currently states that resizing is unavailable during Public Preview. Treat that restriction as part of the purchasing decision and check whether it still applies in your deployment screen.
Our recommendation is to write down the busiest realistic workload before selecting a tier: which tasks can overlap, how many files are processed, and how much history or output will be kept. Test the actual workflow where possible. Several small scheduled jobs spread through a day can have different requirements from the same jobs launched simultaneously; the number of employees alone is not a useful sizing rule.
Compare Operator and Squad when a customer-facing workflow or several overlapping tasks need more headroom than a prototype. First investigate slow responses: a remote model or third-party service can be the bottleneck even when the instance has spare resources. Do not upgrade solely because an answer took longer once. Choose a tier from evidence, allow reasonable room for peak use, and include any move to a new instance in your operational plan.