How to give agents abilities and tools
Connect data sources and actions, from web search and Search Console to publishing and Slack, so your agent can actually get work done.
An agent is only as capable as the abilities you give it. Abilities are the tools and data sources an agent can reach: where it gets information, and what actions it can take in the world. You add them in the Abilities section of the agent builder.
Two kinds of abilities
Think of abilities in two buckets: things that bring information in, and things that send work out.
Data and research (bring information in)
- Web Search and Web Scraping, to research topics and read specific pages.
- Google Search Console and Google Analytics, your real keyword, click, and traffic data.
- AI Visibility and AI Traffic, what AI engines say about you and how they crawl you.
- Keyword Research, Backlinks, and Sitemap URLs, the SEO inputs for content work.
- Brand Kit, your brand voice, colors, and knowledge base, so output sounds like you.
Actions (send work out)
- Publish to a CMS (WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Sanity, Ghost).
- Send a Slack message, to notify your team.
- Generate images, using your brand colors.
- Save a document in Orchly, or update tasks.
An ability that touches an outside service only works once that service is connected. To publish to WordPress, connect WordPress; to read Search Console data, connect it. If an ability looks unavailable, the integration behind it probably isn’t set up yet. See a guide to Orchly integrations.
Give an agent only what it needs
Add the abilities the job calls for, and no more. A writing agent needs web search, keyword research, the brand kit, and a way to save or publish. A monitoring agent might only need Search Console and Slack. Fewer abilities means a more focused, predictable agent.
If you ask an agent to “publish a post to WordPress” but never gave it the publish ability, it can’t. When an agent doesn’t do something you expected, check its abilities first, that’s usually the missing piece.
Once abilities are set, decide when it runs and where the output goes. See schedule and trigger agents and publish agent output.