Tools — How to Give Your AI Agent the Ability to Take Action

Learn what tools are, the different types of tools available, and how to enable, disable, edit, and delete tools in your AI Agent.

Without tools, your AI Agent can only reply with text. With tools, it can take action — trigger a Bot Studio journey, fetch data from an external system, or send rich messages like images, buttons, and interactive lists.

Think of tools as skills you give your agent. The more tools you configure, the more your agent can do.

What You See on the Tools Tab

The Tools tab shows all tools configured for your agent.

Tab	What It Shows
All	Every tool configured for this agent
Bot Tools	Tools that trigger a Bot Studio journey
API Tools	Tools that call an external system to fetch or send data
Send Tools	Built-in tools for sending rich message types
MCP Servers	Advanced integration tools using the Model Context Protocol

There are three main types:

Bot Tools trigger a Bot Studio journey when a customer expresses a specific intent. Use them to collect information, send structured messages, or assign conversations to team members.

API Tools call an external system to fetch or send data in real time. Use them to look up customer records, check availability, create leads, or perform actions in a third-party system.

Send Tools are built-in tools for sending rich WhatsApp messages. They work out of the box — no setup required.

Send Tool	What It Sends
Image	An image message
Document	A file or document attachment
Video	A video message
Buttons	A message with up to 3 clickable buttons
List	An interactive scrollable list
Interactive	A rich message with image header, body text, and reply buttons
Media Carousel	2 to 10 swipeable cards with images and CTAs

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How to Read the Tools Table

Each row in the table represents one tool. Here is what each column tells you:

Column	What It Means
Name	The tool's name with a coloured badge showing its type (Bot, API, Default, or WhatsApp)
Description	What the tool does — the AI reads this to decide when to use it
Parameters	Input data the tool needs. Shows "No parameters" for simple triggers, or lists the specific fields
Actions	Edit (pencil), Journey link (for Bot Tools), Delete (trash), and an enable/disable toggle

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How to Enable or Disable a Tool

1. Locate the tool in the table.

2. Click the toggle on the right side of that row.

3. Green toggle = tool is active and the agent can use it. Grey toggle = tool is disabled and the agent will ignore it.

Disable tools you are not currently using rather than deleting them — this keeps your configuration intact for later.

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How to Edit a Tool

1. Click the Edit (pencil) icon on the tool's row.

2. The form opens pre-filled with the existing configuration.

3. Make your changes.

4. Click Update to save.

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How to Delete a Tool

1. Click the Delete (trash) icon on the tool's row.

2. The tool will be permanently removed.

This cannot be undone.

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Summary

In this article, you learned what tools are, the three types of tools available (Bot, API, and Send), how to read the tools table, and how to enable, disable, edit, and delete tools. In the next article, we will cover Bot Tools in detail — how to create them, add parameters, and build their Bot Studio journeys.