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Tools are external services and applications that your Lyzr AI agents can connect to in order to perform actions, fetch data, or trigger complex workflows. By integrating these tools, your AI agents move beyond passive Question & Answer functionalities and into a realm of powerful, real-time automation and significantly enhanced operational workflows. Lyzr integrates seamlessly with a wide and ever-expanding range of popular platforms — from productivity and collaboration suites (like Slack or Notion) to development tools, communication applications, and entertainment services — thereby enabling intelligent automation and enhanced workflows across your organization.

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🛠️ Types of Tools in Lyzr

Lyzr offers two primary methods for integrating external capabilities: Readily Available Tools and Custom Tools.

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1. Readily Available Tools

Lyzr provides a rich, expansive library of pre-built, managed tools. These tools are maintained by Lyzr and are designed for popular, widely-used platforms.
  • Simple Integration: To use them, you simply navigate to the Tools page from the sidebar, select a desired pre-built tool, and securely sign in with your account for that service.
  • Instant Functionality: Each Readily Available Tool supports multiple specific actions that your agents can perform instantly, allowing for intelligent automation right out of the box without any custom configuration.

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2. Custom Tools (Extending Platform Capabilities)

With Lyzr Custom Tools, you gain the ability to extend the platform’s native capabilities by defining your own actions and integrations. This is crucial for connecting to proprietary systems or specialized internal functionalities. You can seamlessly integrate your existing APIs and custom business logic to equip your AI agents with highly specialized capabilities. Below shows the option to select different types of tools: Custom Tools are implemented using one of two methods based on the nature of the functionality you wish to integrate:

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A. Custom OpenAPI Tools

  • Description: This method is designed for integrating any external service that adheres to the OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) specification. This is the ideal way to connect your Lyzr agent to existing internal microservices, private APIs, or public APIs that have a well-defined specification document.
  • Automated Tool Creation: You provide the OpenAPI specification file (in JSON or YAML format), and the Lyzr platform automatically parses the schema to define the necessary tool structure, including the actions (endpoints), input parameters, and expected output types.
When setting up a Custom OpenAPI Tool, you will need to provide the specification and define essential metadata:

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B. Custom ACI (Agent-Controlled Interface) Tools

  • Description: The ACI tool type allows you to define custom functionalities using Python code snippets directly within the Lyzr platform’s execution environment. This is perfect for implementing highly specialized logic, performing complex data manipulations, integrating with services that lack a simple API, or creating unique agent-controlled workflows that require custom code execution.
  • Open Source Commitment: Lyzr is actively moving towards open-sourcing ACI tooling via ACI.dev. This commitment provides users with complete transparency and control over their data, tool execution logic, and overall data governance within the platform.
The interface for defining an ACI tool, which focuses on providing implementation code:
For a complete step-by-step video guide on creating Custom Tools, including integrating OpenAPI and custom code, please see: Custom Tool Creation Guide

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🔒 Security, Authentication, and Governance

Lyzr is architected with robust security and data governance principles to ensure your credentials and data remain protected.

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1. Secure Storage of Access Keys and Refresh Tokens

  • For SaaS Clients: All access credentials, including sensitive API keys, refresh tokens, and other authentication data, are securely stored within Lyzr’s dedicated infrastructure. This guarantees that client authentication data remains securely contained within the Lyzr environment.
  • For On-Premise Deployments: For organizations requiring maximum control, the entire system—including the secure access credential storage—can be hosted within your organization’s private infrastructure. This ensures that all credentials and operational data remain fully under your direct and exclusive control.

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2. Support for Custom OAuth Applications

  • Client-Managed Authentication: SaaS clients who have stringent security requirements or prefer not to use Lyzr’s default OAuth applications can integrate their own custom OAuth applications for external services. This allows the organization to retain full ownership of the authentication process and data access, keeping it within their internal governance policies.
  • Lyzr securely stores the resultant access and refresh tokens for seamless, non-interruptive operation. Crucially, the actual data retrieval and associated permissions remain fully governed by the client’s own application scope.

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3. Custom Tool Framework Authentication

The flexible Custom Tool framework supports three distinct authentication mechanisms for various integration needs:
  • API Key
  • OAuth
  • No Authentication
Users are empowered to define custom token and refresh URLs for their specific services. Lyzr automatically handles the complex aspects of token management, including refresh cycles and background security operations, simplifying the integration process.