SC26AI agents lab + dinner on the river · Nov 17
Parallel Works
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Using Tools

Tools let Chat work with your ACTIVATE resources while it answers. Instead of explaining how to check a cluster, Chat can look the cluster up, read its logs, estimate its cost, and, once you allow it, start or stop it for you.

Tools act as you. Chat can only see and change what your own account can already see and change.

What Tools Can Do

Tools fall into two kinds:

  • Lookups read information and run without asking. They cover your clusters and their nodes, start steps, logs, and hourly cost; workflow runs, their progress, and their logs; sessions; storage; standalone instances; costs, allocations, and what is billing right now; and the groups and people in your organization.
  • Actions change something and are marked Asks first. They include starting, resuming, stopping, and destroying clusters; creating and editing clusters; creating, starting, stopping, and deleting standalone instances; creating, editing, provisioning, mounting, and destroying storage; attaching and detaching disks; starting and canceling workflow runs; and restarting sessions.

Each tool call appears in the reply as it runs. Lists such as clusters or runs appear as tables, and logs show the last part of the output.

Turning Tools On and Off

All tools are on by default. To choose which ones Chat may use:

  1. Click the + button in the message box.
  2. Choose Tools. The menu shows how many tools are on out of the total.
  3. In the Tools dialog, switch individual tools on or off. Use Search tools to find a tool, and filter the list with All, Lookups, or Asks first.
  4. Use Turn all on or Turn all off to change every tool shown at once.
  5. Click Done.

Your choices are remembered for your next conversations. When some tools are off, the + button shows a dot.

Chat uses tools only with models whose tool calling is available. See Tool Calling & Emulation.

Allowing an Action

When Chat wants to take an action, the reply pauses and shows what it plans to do. Many actions show a card with the details first, such as the cluster or instance, its hourly cost, and what changes. Some cards let you change values before you allow, and Use the suggestion or Undo my changes puts back the values Chat proposed.

To answer:

  • Allow the action, either with the button on its card (for example, Stop followed by the cluster's name) or with Yes, allow this call.
  • Decline it with Cancel on its card or No, deny this call.
  • Choose No, and tell the assistant why to decline and explain what to do instead.

After you answer, the reply continues and records the outcome, such as Allowed by or Denied by followed by your name. A request that is not answered in time shows Expired without an answer; ask again to run it.

Only the person who sent the message can answer its requests. In a shared conversation, others see that the request is waiting for that person to answer.

Tools in Shared Conversations

Tool results are part of the conversation, so everyone you share it with can read them. When a conversation with tool results is shared, the message box shows Tool results here are visible to the people it's shared with. See Sharing Conversations.

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