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


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


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.


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.


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.


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.

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