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navigation_title Workflow tools
description Create custom tools that allow agents to trigger Elastic Workflows directly from a chat conversation to perform deterministic tasks.
applies_to
stack serverless
preview 9.3+
preview
products
id
elasticsearch
id
kibana
id
observability
id
security
id
cloud-serverless

Workflow tools in {{agent-builder}}

Workflow tools enable agents to trigger Elastic Workflows directly from a conversation and use their output. This is ideal for offloading tasks from the LLM that require a deterministic, repeatable sequence of actions.

:::{note} This page explains how to trigger a workflow in an agent conversation. If you want to use an agent within a workflow step, refer to Call agents from workflows. :::

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

  • Familiarize yourself with the core concepts of Elastic Workflows.
  • Set up workflows: Enable the Workflows feature and ensure you have the correct privileges to create and run workflows.
  • Create at least one workflow.

Add a Workflow tool

Follow these steps to configure a workflow tool:

  1. Navigate to the Tools page and create a new tool:

    :::::{applies-switch}

    ::::{applies-item} { stack: ga 9.4+, serverless: ga }

    Click Manage components at the bottom of the left sidebar, select Tools, then click + New tool. ::::

    ::::{applies-item} { stack: ga =9.3 }

    Go to Agents > More > View all tools > New tool.

    ::::

    :::::

:::{image} ../images/create-new-tool-workflows.png :screenshot: :width: 900px :alt: Screenshot of creating a new workflow tool. :::

  1. Select Workflow as the tool type.
  2. Select a workflow from the drop down list.
  3. Fill in the configuration fields.
  4. Click Save.

Configuration

The Workflow tools have the following configuration settings:

Tool ID : A unique identifier for the tool.

Description : A natural language explanation of what the tool does. The agent uses this description to decide when to call the tool. : Example: "Use this tool when the user asks to investigate an alert regarding the payment service."

Workflow : The specific Elastic Workflow to execute. Selecting a workflow automatically pulls its definition into the tool configuration.

Inputs : The parameters required by the workflow. These are automatically detected from the inputs section of the selected workflow's YAML definition. The agent will attempt to extract values for these inputs from the user's chat message.

Labels (Optional) : Tags used to organize and filter tools within the {{agent-builder}} UI.

Call workflows from chat

Once you've created a workflow tool, you must assign it to an agent to make it available in chat.

Assign tool to agent

To assign a tool to an agent:

:::::{applies-switch}

::::{applies-item} { stack: ga 9.4+, serverless: ga }

  1. Select the agent from the agent selector in the left sidebar.
  2. Expand the Customize accordion and select Tools.
  3. Click Add tool and select the workflow tool to assign.

::::

::::{applies-item} { stack: ga =9.3 }

  1. Navigate to Agents.
  2. Select your agent.
  3. Select More > Edit Agent > Tools.
  4. Assign the workflow tool by selecting the checkbox.
  5. Click Save.

::::

:::::

Trigger a workflow

To test your workflow tool, open the Agent chat UI and ask a question that triggers the workflow.

The agent:

  • extracts the necessary parameters from the conversation
  • runs the workflow
  • returns the workflow's final output to the chat

Review the inline reasoning events to trace the execution steps and inspect the raw workflow output.

:::{image} ../images/agent-builder-workflow-tool.png :screenshot: :width: 500px :alt: Inline reasoning events showing an Agent Builder workflow tool execution. :::

Examples

The elastic/workflows GitHub repo contains more than 50 examples you can use as a starting point.

Related pages