genai-toolbox/docs/tools

Tools

Tools represent an action your agent can take, such as running a SQL statement. You can define Tools as a map in the sources section of your tools.yaml file. Typically, a tool will require a source to act on:

tools:
 search_flights_by_number:
    kind: cloud-sql-postgres-generic
    source: my-pg-instance
    statement: |
      SELECT * FROM flights
      WHERE airline = $1
      AND flight_number = $2
      LIMIT 10
    description: |
      Use this tool to get information for a specific flight.
      Takes an airline code and flight number and returns info on the flight.
      Do NOT use this tool with a flight id. Do NOT guess an airline code or flight number.
      A airline code is a code for an airline service consisting of two-character
      airline designator and followed by flight number, which is 1 to 4 digit number.
      For example, if given CY 0123, the airline is "CY", and flight_number is "123".
      Another example for this is DL 1234, the airline is "DL", and flight_number is "1234".
      If the tool returns more than one option choose the date closes to today.
      Example:
      {{
          "airline": "CY",
          "flight_number": "888",
      }}
      Example:
      {{
          "airline": "DL",
          "flight_number": "1234",
      }}
    parameters:
      - name: airline
        type: string
        description: Airline unique 2 letter identifier
      - name: flight_number
        type: string
        description: 1 to 4 digit number

Kinds of Tools

We currently support the following types of kinds of tools:

• alloydb-postgres - Run a SQL statement against an AlloyDB for PostgreSQL instance.
• cloud-sql-postgres - Run a SQL statement against a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance.
• postgres-generic - Run a PostgreSQL statement against a PostgreSQL-compatible database.

Specifying Parameters

Parameters for each Tool will define what inputs the Agent will need to provide to invoke them. Parameters should be pass as a list of Parameter objects:

    parameters:
      - name: airline
        type: string
        description: Airline unique 2 letter identifier
      - name: flight_number
        type: string
        description: 1 to 4 digit number

Basic Parameters

Basic parameters types include string, integer, float, boolean types. In most cases, the description will be provided to the LLM as context on specifying the parameter.

    parameters:
      - name: airline
        type: string
        description: Airline unique 2 letter identifier

field	type	required	description
name	string	true	Name of the parameter.
type	string	true	Must be one of "string", "integer", "float", "boolean" "array"
description	string	true	Natural language description of the parameter to describe it to the agent.

Array Parameters

The array type is a list of items passed in as a single parameter. This type requires another Parameter to be specified under the items field:

    parameters:
      - name: preffered_airlines
        type: array
        description: A list of airline, ordered by preference. 
        items:
          - name: name 
            type: string
            description: Name of the airline. 

field	type	required	description
name	string	true	Name of the parameter.
type	string	true	Must be "array"
description	string	true	Natural language description of the parameter to describe it to the agent.
items	parameter object	true	Specify a Parameter object for the type of the values in the array.