Customer-defined tools
Customer-defined tools let an AI Agent interact with external systems. You configure them on the Tools screen and then add them to an agent on its Tools tab (see Using tools).
Tool types
A customer-defined tool can be one of three types:
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
REST
|
Sends an HTTP/HTTPS request to an external API — the most common type. See Request structure. |
MCP
|
Connects to a Model Context Protocol server and exposes the tools it advertises. See MCP tools. |
Flow
|
Runs a flow to completion instead of making a request. See Flow tools. |
In this section
- Create a customer-defined tool – a walkthrough of the tool editor.
- Pre-built integrations – create ready-made tools for a common provider in a few clicks.
- Request structure – building the HTTP request for REST tools (URL, headers, content, authentication, variable expansion, conditional branching).
- Tool variables – reusable named values referenced from the request.
- Customizing tool response – reshaping, length limits, error responses, timeouts and message history.
- Tool progress messages – messages played to the caller while a tool runs.
- MCP tools – connecting to an MCP server.
- Flow tools – running a flow as a tool.
- Relaying tool results – forwarding the tool's parameters and response to the platform after a successful call.
- Detailed tool call logs – logging the underlying HTTP requests.