Tools

Instructions decide what an agent says. Tools decide what it can do — put a caller through to a person, end the call cleanly, text them a link, or ask your own system a question mid-conversation.

What a tool is

A tool is a capability you attach to an agent. The agent decides when to use it, based on the conversation and on what your instructions told it. You never script the sequence.

Manage them at Tools, then attach them to specific agents in AgentsEditTools. A tool that exists but is not attached does nothing.

The nine tools

Transfer: set this up first

If you add one tool, add this one. An agent with no escape route will keep trying to handle a caller it cannot help, and that is the interaction people remember.

1. Create the tool

   ToolsCreateTransfer. Enter the destination in international format — +254712345678 — or a SIP address if you are handing into a PBX. You can define more than one destination.

2. Attach it to the agent

   AgentsEditTools, tick the transfer tool, save.

3. Tell the agent when to use it

   Add a rule to the instructions. Be specific about the triggers:

   In your instructions

   If the caller asks for a person, sounds frustrated or upset, has a
   complaint, or you have failed to help them twice — transfer the call.
   Say "let me put you through to a colleague" first, then transfer.

4. Test it by being difficult

   Call the agent and demand a human. If you are not transferred within two exchanges, your trigger wording is too narrow — widen it and try again.

Webhooks

The escape hatch. If your system is not in the integrations list but has an HTTP endpoint, a webhook tool lets the agent ask it a question mid-call and speak the answer.

What you configure

What the exchange looks like

Vociply sends the call context plus whatever parameters the agent gathered:

POST https://your-server.example.com/vociply/lookup
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "call_id": "c_8f2a...",
  "agent_id": "a_31bd...",
  "caller_number": "+254712345678",
  "parameters": {
    "order_number": "SO-10482"
  }
}

Return plain JSON. Whatever you send back is given to the agent, which turns it into a sentence — so return facts, not formatted prose:

{
  "status": "shipped",
  "carrier": "G4S",
  "expected": "Thursday 14 March"
}

The agent then says something like “That one shipped with G4S and should reach you Thursday the fourteenth.”

If maintaining an endpoint sounds like more than you want to do, use n8n instead — you build the same thing by dragging boxes, and Vociply talks to it the same way.

Telling the agent when to use them

Attaching a tool makes it possible. Your instructions make it happen. Name the tool and state the trigger:

- Before offering any appointment time, use check_availability.
- After booking, use send_message to text the caller the address.
- If the caller asks for a human or is upset, use transfer_call.
- When the caller says goodbye or the business is done, use end_call.

• Name the tool. “Check the calendar” is vaguer to the agent than check_availability.
• Give the trigger, not the mechanics. “When the caller wants to book” — not a step-by-step of how to call it.
• Say what to do when it fails. “If the booking does not go through, take their number and say someone will confirm.”
• Do not attach tools it has no use for. Every extra tool is one more thing to consider on every turn, which costs a little speed and a little accuracy.

Tool questions