Tool Steps in SimplAI Studio

Tool steps define the actions an AI agent can perform on given inputs. Whether processing text, extracting data, or integrating with APIs, tool steps enable powerful and flexible workflows.

Available tool steps

Click any step to see its inputs, outputs, and configuration:

LLM & reasoning

• LLM Call — call a text LLM with a prompt and structured output.
• Vision (LVM) Call — call a vision model on images.
• Translate — translate text between languages.
• Python Code — run custom Python for transforms and logic.

Search & web

• Google Search — web search results for a query.
• Web Research — deeper multi-source web research.
• Web Scraper — extract content from a URL.
• Knowledge Base Search — retrieve from an attached KB.
• Perplexity Search — real-time web search via Perplexity.

Documents & media

• PDF to Text · PDF to Image — parse PDFs.
• Audio to Text — transcribe audio.
• Upload Video for Transcription · Get Video Transcription — video transcription flow.
• YouTube Audio/Video — pull audio/video from YouTube.

Voice & telephony

• Voice Calling Agent — place or receive phone calls through a calling-enabled agent.
• Voice Recording — capture voice audio inside a workflow.

Utilities

• API Call — call any external REST API.
• Merge Node — combine outputs from multiple nodes, no code.
• Delay — pause execution for a set duration.

Basic Tool Steps

How to Add a Tool Step

1. Go to the Tools page.
2. Click on + Create Tool at the top-right corner.
3. You will be presented with an interface where you can add tool steps in the User Steps section.
4. Click on + User Step to add a new step.
5. Choose a step from the available options, such as LLM Step, API Call, Web Search, etc.
6. Configure the step settings according to your use case.
7. Click Save to add the step to your tool.

Advanced Tool Steps

How to Add a Tool Step

1. Go to the Tools page.
2. Click on + Create Tool at the top-right corner.
3. You will be presented with the Advanced Tool Editor.
4. Click on Start Point and select Input.
5. Click + Add Step Node to insert a new tool step.
6. Configure the tool step as needed.

Parallel Execution in Advanced Tools

Advanced tools allow multiple nodes to run in parallel for more efficient execution.

Example:

• You can create multiple processing nodes that fetch data from different APIs at the same time.
• Configure outputs accordingly to merge the results at a later stage.

Configuring Outputs in Advanced Tools

1. Click + Add Config in a tool step.
2. Define an Output Key (e.g., Result or Output).
3. Reference the output variable (e.g., {{google_search.result}}).

General Tool Step Features

Run a Step

To execute a step, click the Run button. The results will be displayed below the tool step.

There are two options available:

1. Run a single tool step individually (button available next to each tool step).
2. Run all steps from the beginning, including the current step (button available at the top-right corner).

Delete a Step

To remove a step:

1. Click the Settings button in the top-right corner of the tool step.
2. Select Remove to delete the step.

Conditional Execution

You can configure a step to run only if a condition is met:

1. Click the Settings button in the top-right corner.
2. Select Enable Conditions.
3. Define a condition in JavaScript syntax using {{}}.

Examples:

• {{text==="XYZ"}} → The step runs only if the variable text equals "XYZ".
• {{text!=="XYZ"}} → The step runs only if the variable text is not "XYZ".
• {{clean.transformed===""}} → The step runs only if the output of a step called clean is an empty string.

Looping Execution (Foreach Loop)

To repeat a step multiple times for a list of items:

1. Click the Settings button in the top-right corner.
2. Select Enable Foreach.
   
3. Provide the list of values that the step should iterate over.
   

Example Use Case:
If you have a list of movie names and want to generate a summary for each using an AI model, enable the foreach loop and provide the movie names list.

Next Steps

Now that you understand how to create and configure tool steps, you can start building powerful workflows within SimplAI Studio. Here’s what you can do next:

• Test Your Tool: Use the Preview & Test option to ensure your tool behaves as expected.
• Save & Publish: Once satisfied, save a version or publish it for use by agents.
• Integrate with Agents: Connect your tool to an AI agent to automate workflows.
• Explore Advanced Features: Try using parallel processing, conditional execution, and looping for complex automation.

For more details on deploying your tool within an agent, check out our Agent Creation Guide.

If you need further assistance, feel free to contact our support team at [email protected]. Happy building!