Tools
Understand and configure the tools agents use — System Tools always available, plus custom tools your team creates.
Connect the screen to the operation it controls: customer signal, agent behavior, workflow path, channel, CRM context, and review outcome.
What the Tools module shows
The Tools section in Studio (Resources → Tools) shows two categories: System Tools and any custom tools your team has created.
System Tools are built-in capabilities available to every agent: Web Search (real-time web queries), Scrape URL (extract content from any webpage), and LinkedIn (professional network lookup). These are always available — you enable them per agent in Settings → Tools.
Custom tools are actions your team defines and connects to integrations or APIs. Each custom tool has a name, a 'When to use' description that guides the agent, and a tool type that determines how the action is executed.
Creating a custom tool
Click Create Tool in the Tools section. Give it a name that reflects the action it performs — 'Create Support Ticket', 'Look Up Order Status', 'Send Payment Link'. Write a clear 'When to use' description so the agent knows exactly when to invoke it.
Select the tool type: integration-backed (uses a connected app like Salesforce or Zendesk), API call, or table action. The tool type determines which configuration fields appear.
Enabling tools for an agent
Creating a tool makes it available workspace-wide. To give a specific agent access, open the agent in Agent Builder, go to Settings → Tools, and enable the tools relevant to that agent's job.
The Settings → Tools panel shows System Tools (toggled on or off) and any custom tools available in the workspace. Only enable what the agent actually needs — unused tools add noise to the agent's decision-making.
Tools inside Playbooks
Tools can also be scoped inside a Playbook. A Playbook defines when to use a set of instructions and which tools apply — this lets you give the agent access to a tool only in a specific operational context rather than globally.
Use Playbook-scoped tools for actions that should only happen in defined situations: creating a ticket when certain criteria are met, generating a payment link only after qualification, or looking up LinkedIn only during outbound research.
Useful first tools
Create Support Ticket: collects category, priority, customer, company, description, and owner before writing to the support system.
Look Up Account Status: reads a company or customer ID and returns plan, payment status, and open issues before an agent replies.
Send Payment Link: only runs when amount, customer, plan, and payment method are clear.
Tool design rules
A tool should do one job. If it both looks up data and writes a record, split it unless the two actions are always inseparable.
Write the When to use text like a policy: when to call it, what data is required, and when to ask a human instead.
Debugging tool use
If the agent calls the wrong tool, narrow the When to use text. If the tool has the right intent but fails, check credentials, required fields, payload shape, and logs.
If the tool produces risky side effects, move it behind a playbook or workflow step with explicit review.
FAQs
What is a Tool in Studio?
Understand and configure the tools agents use — System Tools always available, plus custom tools your team creates.
When should I create a custom tool?
Create one when an agent needs to perform a specific action, such as creating a support ticket, checking order status, sending a payment link, or calling an internal API.
How should this page fit into onboarding?
Use it to understand the product surface, inspect real UI states, and connect the concept to daily operating workflows before configuring production behavior.
What should I verify before using this in production?
Verify ownership, permissions, source context, failure behavior, and the handoff path so teammates can trust what the system does next.