Tools overview

Tools let an agent act on another system during a conversation. A Tool is a workspace resource: create it once, then attach it to the agents, Procedures, or Workflow nodes that need it. Operade supports webhook Tools, which call an HTTP endpoint owned by your team, and dashboard-only Google Sheets Tools, which search a fixed My Drive range or add one row to a fixed target.

Create and find Tools#

Open Tools in the workspace, then choose a webhook or Google Sheets Tool. Give the Tool a lowercase name such as check_order, a precise description of when the model should use it, and a narrow configuration. Names may contain lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, must start with a letter, and cannot use the reserved name end_call.

The list can be searched by name or description and filtered by type or creator. Workspace members can view Tools. Workspace admins can create and manage them. Google account connection and Tool configuration are dashboard-only in V1; customer API keys cannot manage the integration. The Tool API reference describes the shared typed contract, but it does not make a dashboard-only route available to API keys.

Attach a Tool#

Creating a Tool does not make it available everywhere. In Agent Studio, attach it on the Agent page for model-directed calls, select it in a Structured Procedure Tool step, or add it to a Workflow Tool or Subagent node. An agent prompt can attach up to 30 Tools; Workflow Tool nodes have a smaller limit.

Use a narrow description and parameter schema. The model sees the name, description, and schema—not secret values—and chooses arguments from the conversation. Test the draft before publishing so the exact agent-version snapshot is exercised.

Edit and delete safely#

Webhook Tools remain mutable shared resources: editing one changes the endpoint or schema that future runtimes resolve. A Google Sheets Tool becomes immutable after an Agent version captures it. Use Clone to change, attach the clone to a draft, test it, and publish a new version. Existing conversation events remain historical records in either lifecycle.

Deleting an unlocked webhook Tool succeeds even when an agent config still contains its ID. Those agents keep working but lose that ability; Workflow and Procedure readiness or runtime checks can report the missing resource. Published Google Sheets capabilities cannot be edited or deleted in place. Continue with webhook configuration, Google Sheets Tools, or runtime troubleshooting.