Building Agents
Agents are for tasks that need more structure than a chat message. You give them specific tools and instructions, and hand off work to them.
Agents are Gumloop’s tool for specific or recurring tasks. You give an agent a set of tools and instructions, and it does the work for you. Where Chat is open-ended and you guide it message by message, an agent already knows what to do.
Tools and Instructions: the Building Blocks of Agents
An agent has two components:
- Tools: the apps, datasets, and functionality the agent can use. You connect as many as needed for the job.
- Instructions: what the agent should do and how. This is where you tell it your preferences, your process, what output you expect.
Tools aren’t just external applications or datasets. You can also give agents access to image generation, web search, code sandbox, and workflows (we’ll cover workflows later).
How to Build an Agent
Start by adding the tools and datasets the agent should have access to. Think about what apps it needs to read from, write to, or act on to get the job done. A meeting prep agent might need your CRM, a data enrichment tool, and email. A support agent might need your knowledge base and ticketing system.
Then, add instructions that tell the agent how to use those tools. This is where you define the process: what steps to follow, what information to pull, what output to produce, and what tone to use. Instructions are what turn a collection of tools into something that works the way you want it to. The more specific you are, the more consistent the results.
Tools + Instructions = Agent
That’s the whole model. An agent is a set of tools and a set of instructions. The tools define what it can do. The instructions define how it does it.
| Chat | Agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Tools | All connected apps | Only the ones you choose |
| Instructions | None, you guide it message by message | You define them upfront |
| Best for | Ad hoc tasks | Specific or recurring tasks |
Try It Yourself
Start from a template to see how tools and instructions come together. You can copy any template into your account and customize it, or build one from scratch:
- AskHR: answers HR and policy questions from your internal docs. Use template
- AI Chief of Staff: manages your calendar, emails, and communications. Use template
- Sales Call Analysis: analyzes sales calls and sends insights to Slack. Use template