[Darzil]

Who says you only need to have one deck?  When you can spend 1k on an S-B Microskimmer that will run an Agent and another cyberprogram, you can easily get together the hardware to run large numbers of agents and dodge the whole issue of running multiple agents from the same device.

An S-B Microskimmer is a Drone, and can run Autosofts, not Agents or Cyberprograms. For Agents you need a Deck, which starts with the Erika MCD-1 at 49.5k.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Who says you only need to have one deck?  When you can spend 1k on an S-B Microskimmer that will run an Agent and another cyberprogram, you can easily get together the hardware to run large numbers of agents and dodge the whole issue of running multiple agents from the same device.

An S-B Microskimmer is a Drone, and can run Autosofts, not Agents or Cyberprograms. For Agents you need a Deck, which starts with the Erika MCD-1 at 49.5k.

Or potentially an RCC, but that's a debatable situation to begin with and probably wouldn't help much as the agent couldn't perform any Sleaze or Attack actions.

[Darzil]

Or potentially an RCC, but that's a debatable situation to begin with and probably wouldn't help much as the agent couldn't perform any Sleaze or Attack actions.

Is there somewhere that implies that? On pg 246 I see "Each agent occupies one program slot on your deck." which implies deck only. Agent doesn't appear on pg 269 as a program Riggers can run on an RCC. I guess it does only call it "handy programs", which may imply they are only the more commonly used, rather than an exclusive list.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Darzil
It's a hotly debated topic with no clear answer. The argument from the proponent side is that RCCs can run cyberprograms, and an agent is a cyberprogram, so an RCC should be able to run agents. The opponents use the "occupies one slot on your deck" wording amongst others to argue against the former.

There's a long thread on it here on the forums for those wanting to know more. Not really relevant to the discussion, except to say that even if agents can run on other devices than decks they'll be limited to Computer and Data Processing actions.

[Kincaid]

One of the PACKS in Run Faster is a RCC with an agent.  I asked about this during editing and was told it's working as intended.

[ScytheKnight]

Well.. it wouldn't really be able to do any Matrix actions... but I could see one being used to manage and filter feeds from a surveillance swarm.

[Jack_Spade]

Update:

With Data Trails out, the Agent Cluster can be realized a lot cheaper:

Now you need:

Base:
1x EvoTech Himitsu with a rating 5 Sleaze (11.000 NY)
1x Agent 6 (12.000 NY)
1x Program Carrier: Virtual Machine (900 NY)
1x Device Modification: Add a Module (2 Parts)
1x Stealth Cyberprogram (250 NY)

6x Nixdorf Sekretär (24.000 NY)
6x Add a Matrix Attribute: Stealth (48 Parts)

Parts cost: 10.000 NY

Total cost: 58.150 NY
+10 Karma if you want the Agent 6 as a starting character.

If you want an attack option, you'll have to invest in a bunch of dongles:
6x Rating 1 Attack (18.000 NY)
1x Rating 3 Attack (27.000 NY)
1x Cyberprogram Decryption (250 NY)

New total: 93.300 NY

What a brave new world 

Edit: Some more details:

Every Agent 3 provides through teamwork pretty reliably (91%) at least 1 bonus die and +1 to the relevant limit.
That allows the Agent 6 to work with 18 dice and a nearly uncapped limit for all but the best rolls.

A weakpoint is the susceptibility to matrix damage and the low firewall. But without dumpshock there is no problem with just hitting restart.