Tools are the things your agent can do — not just say. They turn an agent from a knowledge bot into something that can post to Slack, look up a customer in HubSpot, query a Postgres database, file a GitHub issue, generate a Stripe payment link, or send an SMS.
Find them on any agent under the Tools & Actions tab. The catalogue is grouped into nine categories: messaging, e‑commerce, payments, scheduling, databases, storage, business & productivity, developer tools, and built‑ins.
Two kinds of things you can add
- Built-in tools and provider integrations — over 40 ready-made connectors. Pick the tool, paste in a credential, click Test. No code.
- Custom actions — a small async JavaScript function you write yourself. Use this when the provider you need isn't in the catalogue, or when you want to combine a few API calls into one named step the agent can take.
How the agent decides which tool to call
For every tool you install, the agent sees three things:
- The tool's name and description — what kind of thing it does.
- The when_to_use guidance — when you want it picked. You can edit this per-agent to tighten or relax the trigger conditions.
- The input schema — which fields the agent must supply at call time.
Anything sensitive (API keys, OAuth tokens, bucket names, regions) is not shown to the model. It lives on the encrypted credential that backs the tool — see Credentials & safety.
The two tests to run before you ship
Every tool installation has two buttons in the dashboard:
- Test credential — calls the provider with the token you just pasted. Confirms the key works, the scope is right, and the account is reachable.
- Test tool — runs a real, read-only call through the tool (for example
list_objects limit=1,SELECT 1,get_repo). Confirms the tool can talk to the provider end-to-end without making any changes.
Where to next
- Credentials & safety — read this first if you're going to wire up writes or deletes.
- Built-in tools — the freebies every agent ships with.
- Messaging, e-commerce, payments, scheduling, databases, storage, business & productivity, developer tools.
- Build a custom action — when the catalogue doesn't cover it.