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# Tools

A **tool** is something an expert can do during a call or chat: check a calendar, send an email, search the web, or call your own API. You give tools to an expert on its **Tools** tab; changes there apply at once, with an **Undo**, and don't wait for **Save changes**. The **Tools** page in the sidebar (admins only) lists every tool in the workspace, with its health.

## Add a tool

1. Open the expert, then **Tools**, and choose **Add tool**.
2. Pick from **Built-in** or **Your tools** (the workspace's own), or choose **Create a new tool** to connect your own API.
3. Choose the tool's row to [customize it](#customize-a-tool).

![The Add tool list with the built-in actions, some marked Needs setup](/_fern-files/_img/a24e80294a8b6a4b30153d203f0c5b24f8964c74cb119fc3f484cabf6d72707a.webp)![The Add tool list with the built-in actions, some marked Needs setup](/_fern-files/_img/6c7a495b5dbd48b57636e54b6e0111487c028b325f5f4156ff9bc5c241784de2.webp)

Each row shows this week's calls and success rate. **Needs setup** links to the fix.

## Built-in actions

| Tool                      | What it does                                      | Asks first by default |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- |
| **Find calendar events**  | Looks up events on the connected calendar.        | No                    |
| **Find free time**        | Finds open time on the connected calendar.        | No                    |
| **Book a calendar event** | Books an event and invites people.                | Yes                   |
| **Update an event**       | Changes an event's time, title, agenda or guests. | Yes                   |
| **Cancel an event**       | Cancels an event for everyone on it.              | Yes                   |
| **Send an email**         | Sends an email from the connected mailbox.        | Yes                   |
| **Join a meeting**        | Sends the expert into a Meet, Teams or Zoom call. | Yes                   |
| **Search past meetings**  | Searches what was said in your past meetings.     | No                    |
| **Search the web**        | Searches the public web for current facts.        | No                    |

The calendar tools need Google Calendar and **Send an email** needs Gmail, connected in **Settings** → **Integrations**. Until then they show **Needs setup**.

**Search the web** has a **Where it searches** setting: **The whole web**, **Only these sites** or **All except**, with up to 20 websites. An expert makes at most 2 searches per question and 8 per conversation, and each workspace has a daily limit. Web search is on paid plans, and each search is billed. See [Billing](/workspace/billing).

## Conversation control

Three tools steer the conversation itself, each with a switch and **Customize**:

* **End conversation** (on by default): hangs up after a goodbye, or when everything has been handled.
* **Stay silent**: in meetings, stays quiet when people talk to each other rather than to the expert. Leave it off for one-on-one calls.
* **See who is in the meeting**: checks who is present before addressing someone by name.

**Also available automatically** lists tools the expert gets by situation, with no switch: posting in a meeting's chat, emailing the meeting summary, and handing a call to a colleague and back when it has [specialists](/experts/specialists).

## Customize a tool

A built-in tool's settings panel has:

* ***Expert* can use it**: on or off. Applies straight away.
* **Ask first**: the expert reads back what it's about to do and waits for a yes. In chat, it shows an approval card.
* **Can't be interrupted**: the caller can't cut in while it runs. On **End conversation**, the expert says its goodbye in full.
* **Extra guidance**: added after the built-in instructions, for this expert only, such as *"Only book in the afternoon."*
* **Rewrite instructions**: replaces the built-in instructions entirely. Rarely needed.
* **How it went for** *expert*: calls, success rate and average time over the last 7 days.

The panel saves with its own **Save**.

## Your own tools

A custom tool calls an HTTPS endpoint of yours. Create one from **Add tool** → **Create a new tool**, or on the **Tools** page with **Connect your API**, **Paste a cURL command**, **Start from a template** or **Describe it**.

#### Name and purpose

**Name**, **Function name** (lower-case letters, numbers and underscores) and **When should experts use it?**, which the expert reads to decide when to call it.

#### Request

**Method and address**, with `{name}` for a value in the path, such as `https://api.example.com/orders/{order_id}`. Each input is **Text**, **Number** or **Yes or no**, filled by **Expert works it out** or **Always this value**.

#### Authentication

**None**, **Bearer token**, **Basic** or **API key**, plus headers. Tick **Secret** to hide a header's value. Saved secrets are never shown again.

#### Behaviour

**Looks something up** or **Takes an action**. An action can **Ask first**; either can be **Can't be interrupted**.

#### What the expert says and sees

Spoken lines for **When it starts**, **If it's taking a while** and **If it fails**. **Give up after** sets the timeout, 1 to 20 seconds (calls and meetings stop waiting after 15). **What the expert sees** is the whole response or only the fields you pick.

On the **Tools** page, **Try it** runs the real request with your current setup, saved or not.

## Outside tool servers (MCP)

**Give this expert extra abilities** plugs in MCP servers. Choose **Add server** and fill **Label**, **Server URL**, **Transport** and, if needed, **Access token**. Choose **Test connection**, tick the tools the expert may use (up to 12 per server), then **Save** in that section. A tool the server marks *can change data* is confirmed with the caller first.

## Who can use which tools

| Caller                                                    | Tools                                             |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| **Members** (Test panel, in-app chat and calls, meetings) | Everything the expert has.                        |
| **Visitors** (share links, website widget, phone callers) | Conversation control and **Search the web** only. |

Everything else acts on your workspace, so it never runs for an anonymous caller.

## Gotchas

* **"Old editor" tools** come from an earlier version of this tab. Edit them on the **Tools** page.
* **Exports leave out secret header values.** See [Create an expert](/experts/create#import-from-json).

## Related

* [Specialists](/experts/specialists)
* [Guardrails and call experience](/experts/guardrails)
* [MCP](/developers/mcp)