A voice agent with no tools can only talk. Tools are what let it look things up, write things down and send things — during the call, while the caller is still on the line. This article covers the Tools tab: what the groups mean, which switches matter, and the ones people forget.
Everything here is on the agent's Tools tab (Tools & Capabilities), except Testing mode, which is on Setup.
agents:voice:manage permission.An agent gets a tool only if it is ticked here. There is no implicit set; if the agent "won't do" something, this tab is the first place to look.
Five are marked as recommended for most agents: send-sms,
send-email, web-search, retrieval_search and
save-update-user.
flowchart TB
A["Tools tab selection"] --> B["In-call telephony<br/>transfer · cold_transfer · send-dtmf<br/>voicemail_detection · manage_timer"]
A --> C["CRM & contacts<br/>save-update-user · notes · tasks · deals"]
A --> D["Knowledge & search<br/>Tenant Brain · vector search · web search"]
A --> E["Messaging<br/>send-email · send-sms"]
A --> F["Helpdesk<br/>create·reply·update ticket<br/>CSAT"]
A --> G["Operations & duty<br/>duty-check · duty_notify"]
A --> H["Integrations<br/>Google · Microsoft · calendar · maps · Workiz · ERS"]
A --> I["MCP servers<br/>your own connected tools"]
Voice & Calls — the in-call mechanics: warm and cold transfer, keypad tones, voicemail detection, timers. See Transfers, Forwarding and the Duty Roster.
CRM & Contacts — save-update-user identifies and updates the caller,
plus the verbs to add notes, create tasks and deals, and move lifecycle
stages. Everything in this group is pinned to the caller the agent
identified — the agent cannot redirect a CRM write to somebody else's record.
Knowledge & Search — Tenant Brain reads and searches, document
(file-search / vector) search, web search, and fetching the detail of a
prior interaction.
Messaging — send-email and send-sms. Both use the identity you set on
the Telephony tab (from name, from address, signature, SMS number).
Helpdesk & Tickets — create, read, list, update and reply to tickets, and record a satisfaction score. These are caller-scoped: they only ever touch the caller's own tickets, and replies are public replies. Status and priority changes follow your Helpdesk AI governance policy and may wait in the approvals queue rather than applying immediately.
Helpdesk tools need
save-update-usertoo. Tickets are filed under a contact, and that is the tool the agent identifies the caller with. Enable a helpdesk tool without it and the tab warns you: the agent will not be able to open tickets at all.
Operations & Duty — duty lookups and notifications.
Integrations & Other — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, calendar, maps, and industry packs such as Workiz and roadside assistance, where configured.
Two tools are always available and are not listed: the agent can always tell the time, and it can always record an opt-out if a caller asks not to be contacted again.
Both let the agent answer from your material; they are not the same thing.
| Tenant Brain | Vector stores | |
|---|---|---|
| Holds | Governed, versioned concepts your team reviewed and published | Documents you uploaded |
| Best for | Policies, playbooks, FAQs, pricing rules — anything that must be right | Manuals, spec sheets, long reference PDFs |
| Citation | The call shows which concepts were used | Retrieved passages |
| Who changes it | Published through review; agents can propose, not publish | Whoever manages the store |
For anything a caller might act on, prefer the Brain. A policy that lives only in a PDF gets retrieved differently every time; a published concept is one governed answer.
Vector Stores has its own block lower on the tab: "Select the vector
stores this agent can search." It is required when using the file-search
tool — enabling the tool without selecting a store leaves the agent with
nothing to search. The header shows "N of M selected".
Tenant Brain tools include draft-only proposal ability: the agent can suggest a concept from something it learned on a call, and a human publishes it. That is the loop that makes next month's calls better than this month's. See Tenant Brain.
MCP Servers connects the agent to tools you host or subscribe to, beyond what ships with the platform. Pick the servers this agent may use, and — where a server offers many — the individual tools from each.
Everything about MCP is subject to the Testing mode rule below.
Memories → Enable Memories gives the agent per-contact memory that survives between calls: what this person prefers, what was agreed last time, the thing they always have to explain. With it on you can also choose which memory types the agent may read and write.
Memories are not part of a browser test run, so a memory-dependent behaviour has to be checked with Simulate Call or a real call.
Cross-Agent Enrichment ("Pull recent interactions from other agent types into this agent's context") is the setting that makes a caller feel recognised rather than processed: the agent opens the call already knowing the person emailed on Tuesday and used the website chat this morning.
It also enables the agent's ability to fetch the full detail of one of those interactions when the summary is not enough.
Keep the count low. Each interaction is context the model reads on every turn, so a high number costs latency on the whole call in exchange for history the agent may never need.
Below the tools, Optional Prompt Components switches on reusable prompt text — platform components and your workspace's own. System components are always included and are not listed here. Your workspace's components are created by a tenant admin at Settings (the gear icon) → Agents & AI → Prompt Components. See Instructions, Goals and Scheduled Prompts.
On the Setup tab, Agent Mode → Testing Agent deliberately turns off MCP servers, memories and external tools. The agent still talks; it cannot act.
It is the right setting for rehearsing wording without sending real emails, and it is the most common reason an agent that "worked yesterday" suddenly does nothing. The form shows a Testing mode badge in the header while it is set — and switching to Testing clears the agent's tool, MCP and voicemail settings when saved, so it is not a switch to flip casually on a configured agent.
This is worth stating plainly, because it surprises people during testing: when a tool fires, it fires. Emails are sent, texts go out, tickets are created, connected systems are written to — including from the browser test panel, which says so in its own description.
When you are still iterating, use Testing Agent mode, or test with your own contact record and your own phone number.
file-search. Platform rules
forbid inventing facts, so the usual symptom is a refusal to answer rather
than an invention — if you are getting inventions, check the instructions
are not pushing it to answer regardless.save-update-user is not enabled.
Tickets need an identified contact.file-search returns nothing. No vector store is selected in the
Vector Stores block.