Custom Actions
Let your agent call your own API or notify your team during a conversation.
Custom Actions, available from Dashboard → Agents → your agent → Actions, let an agent invoke tools while chatting — calling an external API to read or update data, or sending a notification to Slack/email. Actions are disabled by default for every new agent.
Turning on actions
Flip the master Custom Actions switch, then enable either or both tools below.
API Action (call_api)
Lets the agent call a single HTTP endpoint you configure:
| Setting | Notes |
|---|---|
| When to use | Instructions (up to 2,000 characters) telling the model when this tool applies |
| API URL | The endpoint to call |
| HTTP method | GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE |
| Require confirmation | Ask the visitor to confirm before executing (recommended for destructive operations) |
| API key header | The HTTP header name to send an API key in |
| API key env var | The server environment variable holding the key value |
| Query/body param names | Customize the parameter names used for intent, an identifier, and extra context |
| Timeout | 1–60 seconds |
| Retries | 0–5 |
Use the Test API button to verify the endpoint responds correctly before going live.
API keys are server-side only
For security, the API key env var must be named exactly ACTIONS_API_KEY or start with
ACTIONS_API_KEY_ (for example ACTIONS_API_KEY_STRIPE). This prevents an agent
configuration from pointing at platform secrets like your database or LLM provider keys —
only env vars explicitly provisioned for actions can be used.
Send Notification (send_notification)
Lets the agent notify your team — for escalations, human handoff requests, or feedback — via:
- A Slack incoming webhook URL, and/or
- An email webhook URL
- A default channel (
emailorslack) used when the agent doesn't specify one
How it works at runtime
When enabled, these tools are made available to the model during chat. The model decides
when to call them based on the conversation and your "when to use" instructions (up to 5 tool
calls per response). call_api sends the request to your configured URL with the
intent/identifier/context parameters; send_notification posts to your configured Slack
and/or email webhook.
This is generic HTTP and webhook support — there are no built-in native connectors for specific third-party products (CRMs, helpdesks, e-commerce platforms, etc.). If you need to connect to a specific tool, point the API Action or notification webhook at that tool's own API or an automation platform like Zapier or Make.
See Custom Actions Reference for the exact request/response shapes.