Tools overview

Tools help Optimizely Opal take action on your behalf. Each tool performs a specific task, such as creating a campaign, uploading files, or generating images. Opal connects your natural language request to the right tool automatically. You focus on the outcome instead of running searches, uploading files, or calling APIs yourself.

Think of tools as attachments on a Swiss Army knife. Each one serves a unique purpose.

Opal administrators add and manage tool registries for your organization. Most Opal users do not configure tools directly and instead interact with them through Opal Chat and agents.

For a visual walkthrough of tools, watch the video overview.

Types of tools

Opal offers the following types of tools:

• System tools – Optimizely builds and maintains these tools.
• Connector tools – Optimizely builds and maintains these tools to connect Opal with third-party providers.
• Custom tools – Your organization builds and maintains these tools.

Where tools are used

Opal automatically chooses the right tool to complete each request. Most users experience tools through Opal Chat or agents without knowing which tool runs in the background.

Opal Chat

You do not need to call a tool directly in Opal Chat. Opal analyzes your request to determine your intent and the best tool to use. It looks for keywords, phrases, and the overall meaning of your message to choose the action.

The following examples demonstrate how Opal automatically selects tools based on your requests:

• If you ask, Can you create a campaign for our Q4 marketing efforts?, Opal uses the create_campaign tool.
• If you ask, What is the current date?, Opal uses the get_today tool.
• If you say, Find me some images of dogs, Opal uses the search_web tool with the image search type.

Agents

Specialized agents can call specific tools if you include them in the prompt template. See Create specialized agents for details. Optimizely also provides many Agents in the Agent Directory that include tools.

Connectors tab overview

The Connectors tab links your personal third-party accounts, such as Google or Salesforce, to Opal. Connect an account from this tab to let tools act on it in Opal Chat and agents.

For details, see manage your personal connections.

Tools tab overview

The following image displays the Tools tab, where you can view, filter, and manage tools in your Opal instance.

1. Connectors – Connect your personal third-party account with Optimizely Opal. See Connectors tab overview.
2. Tools – View a listing of tools in your Opal instance categorized by registry.
3. Registries – View a listing of registries in your Opal instance. See Registries tab overview.
4. External Providers – View and add Remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and authentication providers. See Add a remote MCP provider.
5. Search tools – Enter a name or description to filter the tools list.
6. Provider – Filter the tools list by a specific tool provider (registry).
7. Active Status filter – Filter the tools list by enabled or disabled tools.
8. Enabled in Chat filter – Filter the tools list by tools enabled or disabled in Opal Chat.
9. Tool Type filter – Filter the tools by Remote MCP or Opal Tools.
10. Add tool registry – Add custom tools that you self-host or host on Optimizely Connect Platform (OCP). See Add a custom tool to Optimizely Opal.
11. Enabled in Chat column – Indicates whether the tool is enabled and whether you can call it in Opal Chat. Also displays the total number of tools enabled in Opal Chat.
12. Restore tools for chat – Reset which tools are enabled for Opal Chat to the defaults.
13. Tool registry name – The name of the tool registry and the total number of tools in that registry.
14. Tool registry active toggle – Activates or deactivates the entire registry and its tools.
    • When toggled on, agents can use the tools in the registry.
    • When toggled off, the tools in the registry are unavailable.
15. Tool registry chat enablement toggle – Enables access to all tools in the tool registry in Opal Chat. Agents triggered from Opal Chat can use these tools regardless of this setting.
16. Tool information – The tool's name and description. This information lets you call the tool from Opal Chat or add the tool to a specialized agent. See Define tools in Create specialized agents.
17. Preview – Indicates this tool is in Preview mode and is in beta. See System tools in beta.
18. Auth Provider – Indicates whether the tool requires authorization to use.

Registries tab overview

The following image displays the Registries tab, where you can view, filter, and manage tool registries in your Opal instance.

1. Tools – View a listing of tools in your Opal instance categorized by registry. See Tools tab overview.
2. Connectors – Connect your personal third-party account with Optimizely Opal. See Connectors tab overview.
3. Registries – View a listing of registries in your Opal instance.
4. External Providers – View and add remote MCP servers and authentication providers. See Add a remote MCP provider.
5. Search registries – Enter a name or description to filter the registry list.
6. Tool Type – Filter the tools by Remote MCP or Opal Tools.
7. Add tool registry – Add custom tools that you self-host or host on OCP. See Add a custom tool to Optimizely Opal.
8. Name – Name of the tools registry. If the tools registry is from Optimizely, an Optimizely logo displays.
9. Discovery URL – The tool's discovery HTTP endpoint. Click Copy to copy the URL to your clipboard.
10. Owner – Who owns the tool registry.
11. Last Sync – Date when the registry was added or last synced.
12. Tools – List of tools available in the registry.
13. Actions – More options.
    • Sync – Sync the registry to get any new or updated tools. See Update a tool registry.
    • Copy Registry ID – Copy the registry ID to your clipboard.
    • Delete – Delete registries that Optimizely does not manage. This option is unavailable for Optimizely-managed registries. See Delete a tool registry.

External providers tab overview

The External Providers tab connects Opal to remote MCP servers and authentication providers that host tools outside Opal. Add a provider from this tab to make its tools available in Opal.

For step-by-step instructions, see add a remote MCP provider.