- Getting started
- Prerequisites
- Building agents in Studio Web
- Building agents in Agent Builder
Agents user guide
Activities
Agents use Integration Service-based activities from connectors such as Box, Coupa, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack, and Zoom. Using secure, governed Integration Service connections and the field configurations described in the following sections, an agent is able to make API calls directly to a target business application. Note that not all Integration Service activities are available in Agents.
- From the Design tab, under the Tools section, select Add tool.
- Search for activities using the search bar or select a connector from the list to see what activities are available.
- Once you add an activity as a tool, you can:
- Update its description.
- Select a preexisting Integration Service connection or create a new one.
- Configure the field input options to help your agent learn how to use
the activity.
Integration Service connections can be added and managed as in Studio. These secure, governable connections are monitored by Integration Service, which notifies users of any breaks or invalidations.
Each activity comes with a default description, which you can customize to better guide your agent during runtime. While optional, this step enhances output quality and helps the agent understand how to use the tool for specific use cases.
Agents inherently know the information required for successful activity execution, eliminating the need for explicit input or output specifications. By default, agents infer necessary field values. However, you can modify the input method to Static Value or Argument for using specific data or retrieving data from agent input arguments.
For activity fields, you can select one of the following input methods using the
context menu:
- Prompt (default) - When selecting this option, the agent infers the field value at runtime using the Description field and other agent reasoning pertinent in determining to use the tool.
- Argument - When selecting this option, you set the field to an agent input argument. You must first define the argument. Use arguments for passing in runtime values from a workflow that precedes the Run Agent activity.
- Static Value - When selecting this option, you set the field to a specific, static value every time the agent runs.
Web Search and Web Reader are two first-party tools you can add to your agents to supply up-to-date context from the web or a public domain. You can use the activities for questions regarding real-time data, such as stock prices, the time, weather forecasts, or data available on a specific URL at any give time.
The Web Search tool executes a web search using natural language. Like other tools, the Search field can be inferred from instructions in the system and user prompt. For instance, you can tell your agent to get details on industry trends and competitor activities which would be used to construct a forecasting report. By offering the instruction in your prompt and adding the Web Search tool, the agent knows it needs to use the tool to access this critical, up-to-date context.
The Web Reader tool gives you the ability to extract text from a specific URL and add that as context for your agent. For instance, you have a specific parts supplier and you want to go to their web page and extract current prices for those parts. By supplying the URL directly or through the prompt, you ensure that only information from that individual URL is used for surfacing the supplier's prices for specific parts (or any other information contained in that URL).
By combining both Web Search and Web Reader, you give your agent the ability to execute research in the public domain and then use the cited sources and URLs to extract specific details.
