Tools overview

Tools help Optimizely Opal take action on your behalf. Each tool performs a specific task, like creating a campaign, uploading files, or generating images, and connects your natural language requests to the right action automatically. Opal handles the technical details behind the scenes, so you can focus on the outcome instead of manually running searches, uploading files, or calling APIs yourself.

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

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 – System tools created by Optimizely that create connections between Opal and third-party providers.
• Custom tools – Your organization builds and maintains these tools.

Where tools are used

Opal uses tools in various ways, and it automatically chooses the right tool to complete each request. Most users experience tools through Opal Chat or agents and do not need to know which tool is running in the background.

Opal Chat

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

Here are a few examples of how Opal automatically uses 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. Additionally, Optimizely provides many default agents that include tools.

Tools page overview

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

1. Tools – View a listing of tools in your Opal instance categorized by registry.
2. Connectors – Connect your personal third-party account with Optimizely Opal. See Connectors page overview.
3. Registries – View a listing of registries in your Opal instance. See Registries page overview.
4. Search tools – Enter a name or description to filter the tools list.
5. Provider – Filter the tools list by a specific tool provider (registry).
6. Active Status – Filter the tools list by enabled or disabled tools.
7. Enabled in Chat – Filter the tools list by tools enabled or disabled in Opal Chat.
8. Tool Type – Filter the tools by Remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) or Opal tools.
9. Add tool registry – Add custom tools self-hosted or hosted on Optimizely Connect Platform (OCP). See Add a custom tool to Optimizely Opal.
10. Enabled in Chat – Indicates whether the tool is enabled and whether you can call it in Opal Chat. A maximum of 128 tools can be enabled across an Opal instance at a time.
11. Restore tools for chat – Reset which tools are enabled for Opal Chat to the defaults.
12. Tool registry name – The name of the tool registry and the total number of tools in that registry.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. Preview – Indicates this tool is in Preview mode and is in beta. See System tools in beta.
17. Auth Provider – Indicates whether the tool requires authorization to use.

Connectors page overview

Connectors link your personal third-party accounts, such as Google or Salesforce, to Opal.

See Connectors page overview.

Registries page overview

The following image shows 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 page overview
2. Connectors – Connect your personal third-party account with Optimizely Opal. See Connectors page overview.
3. Registries – View a listing of registries in your Opal instance.
4. Search registries – Enter a name or description to filter the registry list.
5. Tool Type – Filter the tools by Remote MCP or Opal tools.
6. Add tool registry – Add a custom tool registry. See Add a custom tool to Optimizely Opal.
7. Name – Name of the tools registry. If the tools registry is from Optimizely, an Optimizely logo displays.
8. Discovery URL – The tool's discovery HTTP endpoint. Click Copy to copy the URL to your clipboard.
9. Owner – Who owns the tool registry.
10. Last Sync – Date when the registry was added or last synced.
11. Tools – List of tools available in the registry.
12. 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 non-Optimizely-managed registries. See Delete a tool registry.