# Tools & capabilities By default, an AI assistant generates responses based on its training, the system prompt you have written, and any documents or knowledge you have attached. Tools and capabilities extend this foundation by giving an assistant the ability to take actions, access live information, process different types of input, and produce a broader range of outputs. Understanding what tools are available, and when to use them, allows you to build assistants that go significantly further than text generation alone. *** ### What Tools Do A tool is a specific capability that an agent can invoke during a conversation to do something it could not do through language generation alone. When a user interacts with an agent that has a tool enabled, the agent can decide, based on the user's input, whether to use that tool as part of producing its response. This decision-making happens automatically. The user does not need to explicitly trigger a tool or know that one is being used. They simply interact with the assistant as normal, and the assistant uses the tools available to it whenever they are relevant to the task. *** ### Available Tools and Capabilities #### Web Search When web search is enabled, an agent can retrieve current information from the internet as part of generating its response. This is useful for assistants that need to answer questions about recent events, current regulations, live market data, or any other information that may have changed since the model's training cutoff. Web search is particularly valuable for compliance and regulatory assistants, where staying current with the latest guidance is important, and for research-focused workflows where up-to-date information is a core requirement. #### Document and Knowledge Retrieval Agents can be connected to specific documents or knowledge collections, enabling them to ground their responses in your organisation's own content. When a user asks a question, the agent retrieves the most relevant content from its attached knowledge and incorporates it into the response. This capability is at the heart of domain-specific knowledge assistants. Refer to the Knowledge & Data section for a full explanation of how document retrieval works within Workspace. #### Code Execution When code execution is enabled, an agent can write and run code as part of its workflow, returning not just the code itself but the result of executing it. This is useful for assistants designed to support data analysis, calculation-heavy tasks, structured data processing, or any workflow where the output of a piece of logic is more valuable than the logic itself. Code is executed in a secure, sandboxed environment. It does not have access to your broader system or data outside of what has been explicitly provided in the conversation. #### Image Generation Some interface configurations support image generation as a tool, allowing an agent to produce visual outputs based on a text description provided by the user. This is useful for creative workflows, content production, and visual communication tasks where generating an image as part of the AI response adds value. Image generation availability depends on the models and interface configuration enabled for your account. #### Vision and Image Analysis Agents connected to vision-capable models can accept image uploads as input and reason over their visual content. This enables use cases such as extracting text from images, analysing diagrams or charts, reviewing visual documents, and describing or categorising visual content. Vision capabilities are model-dependent. The agent builder will reflect which models support vision input when you are configuring your assistant. #### Structured Output Generation For assistants designed to produce data for downstream use, structured output tools enable the agent to return content in formats such as JSON or CSV alongside its natural language response. This is useful for assistants integrated into broader workflows, where the output needs to be consumed by another system or tool rather than simply read by a user. #### Actions and External Integrations Depending on your Workspace configuration, agents may be able to connect to external systems and perform actions beyond the chat interface. This includes integrating with third-party applications via APIs, triggering workflows in connected platforms, or retrieving live data from business systems. The availability of external integrations depends on the configuration set up by your administrator and the connections enabled for your organisation's Workspace environment. *** ### Choosing the Right Tools for Your Assistant More tools do not make a better assistant. An assistant configured with only the tools it genuinely needs for its purpose will be more reliable, more predictable, and easier to govern than one with a broad set of capabilities enabled by default. When deciding which tools to enable for an assistant, work from the use case outward. Ask what the assistant actually needs to do its job, and enable only those tools. If a capability is not required for the assistant's defined purpose, leave it disabled. This keeps the assistant focused and reduces the risk of unexpected or out-of-scope behaviour. *** ### Tool Availability and Governance The tools available to you when building an assistant are determined by the configuration your administrator has set for your account and organisation. Not all tools may be visible or enabled in your interface, and some tools may require additional configuration at the platform level before they can be used. If a tool you need is not available in the agent builder, contact your Workspace administrator to discuss enabling it for your use case. Tool usage within agents is subject to the same audit logging and access control policies that govern the rest of the Workspace environment, ensuring that any actions taken by an agent on behalf of a user remain visible, traceable, and within the boundaries your organisation has defined. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.glbnxt.com/workspace/agents-and-assistants/tools-and-capabilities.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. 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