Agent Tools are a capability that provides your Large Language Model (LLM) additional information from your Vault to help it execute an Agent Action. When executed, Agent Tools operate as extensions of Agent Actions, allowing the action to interact with other areas of your Vault to provide relevant information to Veeva AI Chat users.

An Agent’s capabilities are dependent on the configured Tool Type. For example, VernBio has created a custom Document Quality Check Agent Action that checks document spelling and grammar. They would like the Agent Action to also check if company terms and acronyms used in documents exist in VernBio’s glossary. To accomplish this behavior, they created an Agent Tool using the VQL Query Tool Type, which allows the Agent Action to query the VernBio Glossary object for accepted terms and phrases. Now, when a user clicks Document Quality Check, it will not only provide spelling and grammar checks, but also check if company terms used in the document are available in the glossary.

When assigning an Agent Tool to an Agent Action, you may include details on when and how to execute the tool in the Agent Action’s instructions. In addition, you can configure the Agent Action to always use an assigned Agent Tool, or let your LLM decide when to employ the Agent Action. The Description of the Agent Tool and Input parameters can also help your LLM to understand how to use the Agent Tool without explicit mention in the instructions.

To configure an Agent Tool:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Tools.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Select VQL Query as the Tool Type.
  4. Enter a Label. The API Name field value is populated based on the Label value.
  5. Set the Status to Active or Inactive. By default, new Agent Tools are created in the Active status.
  6. Enter a Description.
  7. Under Input, click Add. This option is not available until you select the Tool Type. You can add up to ten Input parameters.
  8. Enter a Property. This value represents the attribute your LLM uses to execute the Agent Tool. For example, if you enter SELECT id, name__v FROM documents WHERE TONAME(type__v) = 'promotional_piece__c' in the Query field, you would enter promotional_piece__c as the Property.
  9. Select String, Integer, or Number from the Type drop-down.
  10. Enter a Description of the Input parameter.
  11. Click Add.
  12. Enter your VQL statement in the Query field.
  13. Click Save.

The Agent Tool is now created and you can assign it to an Agent Action.