Building Your First Tool

Configuring Your First Tool

In 008 Agent, Tools are external functions that Voice AI Agents can call in real time to enrich conversations — from checking availability to triggering workflows in third-party systems. Setting up your first tool is straightforward and requires a well-defined JSON schema and endpoint configuration.

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🧱 Tool Structure Overview

To create a new tool, you’ll define:

1. Tool Name
2. Parameters Schema (JSON Schema format)
3. Timeout (in milliseconds)
4. Call Type (http by default)
5. HTTP Configuration
   • Endpoint URL (URI)
   • HTTP Method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE)
   • Headers (optional)

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📝 Example Configuration

Example 1 - Retrieving info from a specific Zendesk ticket

{
  "name": "get_ticket_comments_zendesk",
  "parameters": {
    "type": "object",
    "description":"Retrieves all public and internal comments from a specific Zendesk ticket.",
    "properties": {
      "ticketId": {
        "type": "integer",
        "description": "Integer ID of the Zendesk ticket"
      }
    },
    "required": ["ticketId"],
    "additionalProperties": false
  }
}

https://YOUR_ZENDESK_URL.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets/{ticketId}/comments.json

Example 2 - Creating a new Zendesk ticket

{
  "name": "create_zendesk_ticket",
  "parameters": {
    "type": "object",
    "description":"Creates a new support ticket in Zendesk with requester, priority, subject and initial comment.",
    "properties": {
      "ticket": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "comment": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "body": {
                "type": "string"
              }
            },
            "required": ["body"],
            "additionalProperties": false
          },
          "requester": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "locale_id": {
                "type": "integer"
              },
              "name": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "email": {
                "type": "string",
                "format": "email"
              }
            },
            "required": ["locale_id", "name", "email"],
            "additionalProperties": false
          },
          "priority": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": ["low", "normal", "high", "urgent"]
          },
          "subject": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "required": ["comment", "requester", "priority", "subject"],
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    },
    "required": ["ticket"],
    "additionalProperties": false
  }
}

https://YOUR_ZENDESK_URL.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets.json

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⏱️ Timeout Best Practices

• Set a reasonable timeout (e.g., 10–20 s) to ensure calls don’t block the conversation
• If the response takes longer than the timeout, the agent will gracefully skip and continue the call

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⚙️ Supported HTTP Methods

Method	Use Case
GET	Retrieve data (e.g. check state)
POST	Create or trigger actions
PUT	Replace resources
DELETE	Remove data

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✅ Tips for Tool Design

• Keep parameter names intuitive and clearly documented
• Validate external APIs are fast and highly available
• Use authentication headers when needed (e.g., Bearer Token)
• Consider logging each invocation for traceability

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By defining smart tools, your VoiceBot becomes a true operator — capable of scheduling meetings, generating leads, fetching product info, and more.

Next step? Link your tools to prompts and agent instructions for seamless AI-driven interactions.