Tools

Tools are the primary way to extend your AI agent's capabilities in Bigmind. They allow agents to perform specific actions, access data, and interact with external systems. Understanding how to configure and use tools effectively is key to building powerful, useful agents.

What are Tools?

Tools are functions that AI agents can call to perform specific tasks. When an agent needs to retrieve information, perform an action, or interact with an external system, it uses tools. For example, when you ask an agent about opportunities in an account, it uses the listAccountOpportunities tool to fetch that data from your CRM.

Key characteristics of tools:

Function-based: Each tool performs a specific, well-defined action
Parameterized: Tools accept input parameters to customize their behavior
Return results: Tools return structured data that the agent can use in its response
Composable: Agents can call multiple tools in sequence to accomplish complex tasks

Types of Tools

Bigmind provides three main categories of tools that you can add to your agents:

Built-in Tools

These are pre-built tools provided by Bigmind that cover common sales and CRM operations. They're ready to use and don't require any configuration.

CRM Tools:

listAccountOpportunities: Retrieve all opportunities (deals) associated with an account
listAccountContacts: Get contact information for stakeholders within an account
listAccountActivities: Fetch recent activities (meetings, emails, calls) for an account
listAccountDocuments: Access documents associated with an account
listCustomAccountFields: Retrieve custom field values for an account
suggestAccountObjectUpdates: Suggest updates to account fields based on conversation context
suggestContactObjectUpdates: Suggest updates to contact fields
suggestCrmUpdatesForDeal: Suggest updates to deal fields
updateDealSummary: Update the deal summary with new information
trackWarnings: Track and flag warnings or risks in deals
frameworkUpdatesForDeal: Update framework assessments for deals

Communication Tools:

draftEmailToSend: Draft emails for outreach, follow-ups, or responses. The agent can compose professional emails based on context and user intent

Enrichment Tools:

researchCompanyByDomain: Research company information using their domain. Provides firmographic data, technology stack, and company insights
enrichedFieldResult: Access enriched data from third-party providers (Perplexity, BuiltWith, Lusha, etc.)

Library Tools:

listCaseStudies: Retrieve relevant case studies from your library
getDocumentById: Fetch a specific document from your library
writeDocument: Create or update documents in your library

Meeting Tools:

getMeetingById: Get meeting details by ID
getMeetingSessionById: Retrieve a specific meeting session
getSessionsByMeetingId: List all sessions for a meeting
getMeetingTranscriptBySessionId: Access the full transcript of a meeting
getMeetingNotesBySessionId: Get structured notes from a meeting
getMeetingSummaryBySessionId: Retrieve the AI-generated summary of a meeting
generateMeetingSummaryBySessionId: Generate a new summary for a meeting session
runPostMeetingActions: Trigger post-meeting workflows and analysis

Coaching Tools:

talkingPointQuestionAnswer: Answer questions about configured talking points
talkingPointSuggestion: Suggest relevant talking points for conversations

Activity Tools:

lookupActivityById: Retrieve detailed information about a specific activity

Integration Tools

Integration tools are provided by your connected third-party systems. When you connect an integration like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Google Workspace, additional tools become available to your agents.

How integration tools work:

Automatic availability: Tools appear automatically when you connect an integration
System-specific: Each integration provides its own set of tools based on its capabilities
Authentication handled: Bigmind handles authentication and permissions with the third-party system
Real-time data: Integration tools fetch live data from the connected systems

Common integration tools include:

CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce): Create/update records, search objects, manage associations
Communication integrations (Google Workspace): Send emails, schedule meetings, access calendar
Enrichment integrations (Perplexity, BuiltWith, Lusha): Research companies, find contacts, gather intelligence

Custom Tools

Custom tools are tools you create yourself to extend Bigmind with your own business logic and integrations. They're built using Cloudflare Workers and can do virtually anything - from calling internal APIs to performing complex calculations.

Creating custom tools:

Navigate to Settings → AI → Custom Tools
Click "Create Tool" and provide a name and description
Define the input schema: Specify what parameters your tool accepts using JSON Schema
Define the output schema: Specify what data your tool returns
Write the code: Implement your tool's logic using JavaScript/TypeScript
Test your tool: Use the built-in testing interface to validate behavior
Deploy: Activate your tool to make it available to agents

Custom tool capabilities:

Call external APIs: Integrate with any HTTP API
Process data: Transform, filter, or aggregate data
Business logic: Implement company-specific rules and calculations
Database access: Query databases (with proper security)
Third-party services: Integrate services not natively supported by Bigmind

Example custom tool use cases:

Calculate custom pricing based on your pricing model
Check inventory availability in your ERP system
Validate data against internal databases
Trigger workflows in other systems
Generate custom reports or analytics

Tool Groups

Some built-in tools are organized into groups that provide related functionality. Tool groups make it easy to add a comprehensive set of capabilities to your agent all at once.

Available tool groups:

Browser Use: A suite of browser automation tools (browserNavigate, browserAct, browserExtract, browserObserve, browserThink, browserScreenshot) that allow agents to browse websites, extract information, and interact with web applications

When you add a tool group to an agent, all tools in that group are automatically added. This ensures that related tools that work together are all available to the agent.

Adding Tools to Agents

To add tools to an agent:

Open the agent configuration in Settings → AI → Agents
Navigate to the Tools tab
Click "Add Tool"
Browse available tools: Tools are organized by category (Individual Tools, Tool Groups, Integration Tools, Custom Tools)
Select the tool(s) you want to add
Save the agent configuration

The agent will immediately have access to the new tools and can start using them in conversations.

How Agents Use Tools

When you chat with an agent, the agent decides when to use tools based on your request and the conversation context. The process works like this:

User request: You ask the agent a question or make a request
Agent reasoning: The agent analyzes the request and determines if it needs to use tools
Tool selection: If tools are needed, the agent selects the appropriate tool(s)
Tool execution: The agent calls the tool with the necessary parameters
Result processing: The agent receives the tool's response and processes it
Response generation: The agent formulates a response to you based on the tool results

In the Bigmind interface, you can see when agents use tools - tool calls are displayed in the chat with an expand/collapse icon so you can inspect what the agent is doing.

Tool Security and Permissions

Tools operate within Bigmind's security model:

Tenant isolation: Tools only access data within your organization or user account
CRM permissions: Integration tools respect the permissions configured in your CRM
No data leakage: Tools cannot access data from other Bigmind customers
Audit trail: Tool usage is logged for compliance and debugging

Background Agent Tools

Background agents have separate tool configurations from foreground agents. When you toggle to "Background Agent" mode in the agent configuration, you can configure a different set of tools optimized for automation:

Internal tools: Configured separately from the foreground agent tools
Automation-focused: Typically include tools for CRM updates, framework assessments, and data processing
No user interaction: Background agent tools operate autonomously without user confirmation

Common background agent tools:

suggestAccountObjectUpdates
suggestCrmUpdatesForDeal
updateDealSummary
trackWarnings
frameworkUpdatesForDeal

Best Practices

Start minimal: Begin with only the tools your agent needs. You can always add more later
Test thoroughly: Use the agent testing interface to verify tools work correctly
Document custom tools: Provide clear descriptions so agents (and teammates) understand what each tool does
Monitor usage: Review tool usage patterns to optimize agent performance
Group related tools: If you create multiple related custom tools, consider using tool groups
Handle errors gracefully: Custom tools should return helpful error messages when things go wrong

Troubleshooting

Agent not using a tool:

Verify the tool is added to the agent in the Tools tab
Check that your request matches what the tool is designed to do
Review the tool's description - the agent uses this to decide when to call it
Test the agent with a direct request that clearly requires the tool

Tool returning errors:

For integration tools: Check that the integration is still connected and has proper permissions
For custom tools: Review the tool's code and test it in the Custom Tools interface
Check that the input parameters are valid and match the expected schema

Custom tool not appearing:

Ensure the custom tool status is set to "active"
Verify the tool was successfully deployed
Check that you have the necessary permissions to use the tool