Give Your Agent Tools

Overview

Tools enable your agent to go beyond simple conversation by performing actions such as searching the web, accessing databases, sending emails, or interacting with other systems. When properly configured, tools transform your agent from a conversational interface into a powerful digital assistant that can take meaningful actions on behalf of users.

Adding Tools to Your Agent

In the Agent Builder interface, navigate to the Tools section to begin enhancing your agent’s capabilities:

1. Select from pre-built tool templates that cover common use cases
2. Add custom tools you’ve created under the Add new tool option
3. Configure each tool’s usage settings based on your requirements

Tool Input Configuration Options

When adding Tools to your Agents, you can choose from three different usage modes for your Inputs:

Let agent decide

This balanced approach gives your agent the flexibility to determine how the Input is entered based on context. The Agent will use its judgement about what Inputs to give your Tools.

Best for: A mix of tool types where you want to get things up and running quickly.

Set manually

This option allows you to explicitly specify the Inputs for each Tool or action. You have full control over which settings are used for your tools.

Best for: Scenarios where strict oversight or compliance is needed, and you want to minimize any ambiguity in approval processes.

Tool output

This option allows you to select the outputs from a previous Tool run by the Agent.

Guiding Your Agent’s Tool Usage

For optimal results, provide your agent with clear guidance about how and when to use its tools:

Core Instructions: Include specific directions about tool usage in your agent’s core instructions. For example:

• When to prioritize certain tools over others
• How to interpret and present tool results
• What circumstances warrant tool use versus simple conversation

Best Practices for Tool Implementation

• Start Simple: Begin with a few essential tools before adding more complex capabilities
• Test Thoroughly: Verify that each tool works as expected in various scenarios
• Monitor Usage: Review how your agent is using tools in real conversations to identify opportunities for improvement
• Refine Gradually: Adjust tool configurations and instructions based on actual usage patterns
• Combine Tools Strategically: Create powerful workflows by combining multiple tools in sequence

Common Tool Categories

While the specific tools available depend on your implementation, common categories include:

• Information Retrieval: Search engines, knowledge bases, document repositories

• Communication: Email, messaging, notifications

• Data Processing: Analysis, transformation, summarization

• Integration: Connecting with external systems and APIs

• Content Creation: Generating text, images, or other media

By thoughtfully selecting and configuring the right tools for your agent, you can create a powerful assistant that delivers exceptional value to your users through both conversation and action.

Tool Approvals

Control whether your agent needs permission before running a tool. You can set the approval mode individually for each tool.

Auto Run

The tool runs automatically whenever the agent determines it should be used. The agent incorporates tool functionality without interrupting the conversation flow.

Best for: Tools that are low-risk, frequently used, or where immediate action is beneficial.

Approval Required

The agent will ask for explicit permission before using the tool. When the agent determines a tool would be helpful, it will first explain what it wants to do and why, then wait for user confirmation before proceeding.

Best for: Tools that perform sensitive actions, have potential costs associated with them, or where user oversight is important.

Let Agent Decide

This balanced approach gives your agent the flexibility to determine when approval is necessary based on context. The agent will use its judgment about when to ask for permission versus when to proceed automatically.

Best for: A mix of tool types where you want to balance convenience with appropriate caution.

Skills vs. Tools

Tools and Skills both extend what your agent can do, but they serve different purposes.

Tools are actions — discrete integrations that let your agent interact with external systems. Sending an email, querying a database, and searching the web are all tool operations.

Skills are behavioral patterns and knowledge sets stored as files. They shape how the agent thinks, communicates, and approaches problems — without performing any external actions themselves.

	Tools	Skills
Purpose	Do things in the world	Shape how the agent thinks and responds
Examples	Send email, search web, query database	Communication style, domain expertise, methodology
Configured in	Tools section of Agent Builder	Files section (/skills/ directories)
Activated by	Adding to the agent’s tool list	File read commands in the agent prompt

Use Tools when your agent needs to take an action. Use Skills when you want to encode reusable knowledge or behaviors across multiple agents.

For a full guide on creating and managing Skills, see the Agent Skills page.

Tool Settings

Failure policy

Define what your agent should do when a tool errors. Open the Tool Settings on the Tools page to configure the failure policy.

Always retry errored tool

When on, forces the agent to retry errored tools until success or max retries (at which point the task will fail). When off, the agent decides on its own whether it’s worth retrying. For most users, enabling retries is a safe way to handle occasional hiccups without manual intervention.

Maximum number of tool retries

The number of times the agent will retry a tool that errors before marking the task as failed. A few retries (like 3) usually strikes a good balance — it gives your agent a second chance without risking long loops or extra costs. Increasing this may raise credit usage.

Behavior after max tool retries

Decide what should happen when the maximum number of retries is reached: either Terminate task immediately or Escalate it to a human for help. Terminating is faster and simpler, but escalation gives you a chance to fix things manually when it matters most.