Tools and skills

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Tools vs. skills

IMP distinguishes two kinds of agent capability:

• Tools are server-side integrations — API calls, search functions, code runners, and data connectors — installed and managed by administrators. Each tool has a type, a category, and optionally a set of parameters that must be bound before the agent can use it.
• Skills are reusable prompt-level capabilities: pre-written reasoning patterns, formatting rules, or multi-step response strategies. Skills are toggled on per agent and do not require parameter configuration.

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The Tools & skills section

In the workbench, open the Tools & skills section. The toolbar has:

• Search — filter by name or description (“Search tools by name or description…”).
• Category filter — narrow to a single category (default “All categories”). Only categories present on this deployment appear.
• Clear filters (×) — resets search and category together.
• Expand all / Collapse all — open or close every category accordion.
• Result count — “{n} tool(s) found” when a filter is active, “{n} tool(s) available” when showing all.

Tools are grouped by category in an accordion. Each tool row shows the tool name, description, and an enable toggle.

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Enabling a tool

Toggle the switch on a tool row to enable it for this agent. For tools with required parameters, IMP automatically opens the Configuration sheet the moment you enable the tool so you can fill in the bindings immediately — the tool stays enabled even if you close the sheet before configuring, but it won’t work until all required parameters have values.

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Per-tool configuration

Many tools expose one or more parameters that must be bound to a value before the agent can call them. Parameter types include plain strings, numbers, and variable references — a dropdown that lets you pick a named variable from the organization’s Variables store instead of hard-coding a value. Using variable references keeps secrets out of the agent form and allows administrators to rotate values in one place. To configure a tool: You can reopen the configuration sheet at any time by clicking the Configure button (gear icon) on an already-enabled tool row.

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Sub-agents as tools

When sub-agent orchestration is enabled on this deployment, other agents appear in the Tools & skills section under the Agents category. Enabling an agent-as-tool means the current agent can call the sub-agent during a conversation — for example, routing specialized questions to a domain expert agent. A toggle at the top of the Agents category controls whether the current agent’s own tools and sub-agents are shown in the list (“Show this agent’s tools & sub-agents”). Self-referential loops are excluded automatically.

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Skills

Below the tools accordion, the Skills section lists available skills. Each skill row shows the skill name and description with a toggle. Skills have no parameters — enabling one activates it for all conversations this agent handles. See Skills in the Building section for how to define custom skills.

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Next steps