Creating an action

Defining an action: where it calls, what it needs, what it returns, and the description that decides whether AI uses it correctly.

Defining an action: where it calls, what it needs, what it returns, and the description that decides whether AI uses it correctly.

Create an action

1. Open Admin Center, then Apps and integrations, then Custom actions.
2. Add an action and name it after what it does.
3. Set the endpoint and authentication.
4. Define the inputs it needs.
5. Define what it returns.
6. Write the description. See below.
7. Test it.

The description is not documentation

The most important field, and the one that looks least important. Where an AI agent decides which action to call, it decides from the description.

A vague one produces an agent calling the wrong action or not calling any. Be specific about what it does, what it needs, and when it applies: "Looks up the delivery status of an order using the order number. Use when a customer asks where their order is."

Name inputs clearly

Same reason. An input called order_number is understood; one called param1 is not, and something has to guess what to put in it.

Handle the failure case

Decide what happens when the other system is down or returns nothing. An action without a defined failure behaviour leaves an AI agent improvising in front of a customer, which is exactly where you do not want improvisation.

Test with real inputs

Including the ones that should fail: an order number that does not exist, a customer with no orders. Those are the cases that will occur, and they are the ones nobody tests.

See also

• Testing actions in the action builder
• Building an action flow
• Creating a custom action