Tools are the actions your agent can take — creating a patient record in Athena Health, sending an SMS via Spruce Health, posting a message in Slack. Without tools, the agent can only think.
How tools work
When your agent runs, it reads your instructions and decides which tools to call — and in what order — to complete the job. For example, if your instructions say "check whether the patient exists in DrChrono, and if not, create them," the agent will:
- Call the Find Patient tool in DrChrono
- Based on the result, decide whether to call the Create Patient tool
The agent handles the logic. Your job is to make sure the right tools are available and the right app accounts are connected.
Connect your app account
Each tool needs a connected account for the app it acts on. You can reuse an existing connection (one already set up for a Keragon workflow, for example) or connect a new account inline as you add the tool.
- In the agent builder, go to the Tools section.
- Click Add Tool.
- Search for or select the app you want to add — for example, Athena Health, DrChrono, or Slack.
Select the tools
Once you've selected your app, choose which tools you want to make available to the agent. You can pick specific tools one by one, or use Select all to give the agent every tool that app supports.
- From the tool list, either:
-
Pick specific tools — recommended for tighter, more predictable behaviour. For example:
- In Athena Health: Get patient, Create patient, Book appointment, Get booked appointments
- In DrChrono: Get patient, Create patient, Get appointments
- In Healthie: Create patient, Get client, Create appointment
- In Kareo: Create patient, Get patient, Create appointment
- In Spruce Health: Send SMS, Get contacts
- In Slack: Send message
- In Google Sheets: Append row, Get rows
- Or click Select all to give the agent every available tool for that app — useful when you're still iterating on instructions and aren't sure yet which tools you'll need.
-
Pick specific tools — recommended for tighter, more predictable behaviour. For example:
Tip: Adding fewer, more specific tools makes the agent's behaviour easier to predict and audit. Reach for Select all when you're exploring; tighten to specific tools when you're closer to publishing.
Repeat for all tools your agent needs
Add one tool for each action your agent will need to complete its instructions. You can add tools from multiple apps.
Example — Patient intake agent
| Tool | App | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Find existing patient | Athena Health | Get patient |
| Create new patient | Athena Health | Create patient |
| Send welcome message | Spruce Health | Send SMS |
| Notify the team | Slack | Send message |
Example — Daily appointment summary agent
| Tool | App | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Fetch today's appointments | DrChrono | Get appointments |
| Log to spreadsheet | Google Sheets | Append row |
| Notify ops team | Slack | Send message |
What the agent can and can't do with tools
The agent can:
- Call any tool you've added, in any order, based on your instructions
- Use the output of one tool as input for the next (e.g., use a patient ID returned from "Get patient" to book an appointment)
- Decide not to call a tool if your instructions tell it the step isn't needed
The agent can't:
- Use apps that haven't been added as tools
- Access apps outside Keragon's integration catalog
- Make changes beyond what the tool's action allows (e.g., if you add "Get patient" but not "Update patient," the agent can read but not write)
Tips
- Match your tools to your instructions. If your instructions mention "check Healthie for an existing client," make sure you've added a "Get client" tool for Healthie.
- Add read and write tools separately. Fetching data and writing data are separate actions. If your agent needs to do both, add both tools.
- You can add tools from multiple EHRs if your organization uses more than one system — but make sure your instructions are specific about which system to use in which situation.