How to Configure AI Agents
Build an AI agent that works your systems, not just your knowledge base. Pick the chatbot it serves, write its instructions, and grant it the tools it is allowed to use.
Before you begin
A chatbot answers from what it has been trained on. An AI agent goes further: it can look things up in your connected systems, and, if you let it, take action. An agent is where you decide exactly how far that reach goes.
Plan and role
AI agents live on the Connections page, which is available on the Enterprise plan, and during the free trial, to Admins and Owners.
Open the AI Agent tab
Select Connections in the sidebar (under DEVELOPER TOOLS), then the AI Agent tab. It has four sub-tabs, and you generally work through them left to right the first time.
| Sub-tab | What you do there |
|---|---|
| AI Agents | See the agents you have already saved. |
| Connection | Choose the chatbot this agent serves, and whether it remembers context. |
| General | Name the agent and write its system prompt. |
| Tools | Grant the tools it is allowed to use. |
Connect the agent to a chatbot
On the Connection sub-tab:
Sync your chatbots
Select Sync Chatbots to pull your current chatbot list. If the dropdown is empty, you have no active chatbot yet, so create or activate one first.
Pick the chatbot
Choose the chatbot from Connect to Chatbot. Once selected, a panel shows its status, ID, and when it last synced.
Decide on memory
Enable Memory lets the agent carry conversation history and customer context between turns. Leave it on for support work, where a caller referring back to "that order" should be understood.
Name it and write its instructions
On the General sub-tab, set the Agent Name and the System Prompt. The prompt is the agent's standing brief: who it is, what it handles, what it must refuse, and when it should hand off.
The Model is fixed. Agents run on your workspace model, shown as Powered by CFE-4.5 PRO, so there is nothing to choose.
Grant its tools
The Tools sub-tab is the important one. It is a list of capabilities, grouped by category, each with its own switch. An agent can only do what you switch on here.
The safety switch comes first
At the top sits Allow outbound actions, and it is off by default. Tools that only read data work without it. Tools that do something in the outside world (send an email, create a ticket, fire a webhook) stay disabled until you turn it on. Leave it off unless the agent genuinely needs to act.
What each tool does
| Tool | Category | Needs | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Base Search | Knowledge | Built in | Searches the chatbot's trained documents for cited answers. On by default. |
| Conversation History | Data | Built in | Reads past conversations and messages for your organization. |
| Leads & Contacts | Data | Built in | Reads captured leads and their contact details. |
| Escalate to Human | Support | Built in | Hands the conversation to a live agent or the support queue. |
| Order Lookup (Shopify) | E-commerce | Shopify or WooCommerce connection | Checks order status, history, and product details. |
| Customer Lookup (CRM) | CRM | HubSpot connection | Looks up customer records, deals, and ticket history. |
| Policy Lookup (Insurance) | Insurance | Insurance connection | Retrieves policy details after identity verification. |
| Student Services (University) | Education | University connection | Looks up student records, courses, and service status. |
| Account Services (Banking) | Banking | Banking connection | Looks up accounts, cards, and balances. |
| Send Email | Communication | Built in, outbound | Sends a transactional or follow-up email for the customer. |
| Create Support Ticket | Support | HubSpot or Zendesk, outbound | Opens a ticket in your connected helpdesk. |
| Trigger Webhook | Notifications | Built in, outbound | Fires a configured webhook to notify an external system. |
Reading the badges
Each tool card tells you why it is or is not available:
- Connected means the tool is usable. Built-in tools are always connected; the rest need a matching active connection on the API Connections tab.
- Not Connected greys the tool out, with the line "Connect this service in the API Connections tab to enable this tool."
- Outbound (amber) marks a tool that acts rather than reads. If it is connected but still disabled, you will see "Turn on Allow outbound actions above to enable this tool."
- Coming soon marks a tool that is listed but not yet wired up.
- Once a tool is connected, its card lists the specific capabilities it brings, for example Order status, Order history, and Product lookup.
Save the agent
Select Save Configuration. The agent now appears on the AI Agents sub-tab with a count of how many you have. To change one later, edit it and select Update Agent; Reset to Defaults clears the form without saving.
Verify it's working
- Confirm the agent appears on the AI Agents sub-tab after saving.
- Check that the tools you expected show Connected rather than greyed out.
- Give it a job to prove it end to end, see Manage Agent Tasks.
Troubleshooting
The chatbot dropdown is empty
No active chatbot was found. Select Sync Chatbots again, and confirm you have a chatbot that is active and published.
A tool is greyed out and says "Not Connected"
That tool needs a live connection to the underlying service. Add it on the API Connections tab, confirm its status is healthy, then come back and the switch becomes available.
A tool is connected but its switch will not turn on
It is an outbound tool. Turn on Allow outbound actions at the top of the Tools sub-tab first. This is deliberate, so an agent never gains the ability to email customers or open tickets by accident.