Tools
Built-in Tools
Reference guide for all built-in tools available on thinnestAI — search, scraping, data, productivity, communication, and more.
Built-in Tools
thinnestAI comes with dozens of pre-built tools that your agents can use out of the box. Most only require an API key to get started.
Search Tools
Tools for searching the web, academic databases, and knowledge repositories.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| DuckDuckGo | Privacy-focused web search. No API key needed — great for getting started. | No |
| Tavily | AI-optimized search engine built for agents. Returns clean, structured results. | Yes |
| Exa | Neural search engine that understands meaning, not just keywords. Excellent for research tasks. | Yes |
| SerpAPI | Google Search results via API. Supports Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more. | Yes |
| Brave Search | Privacy-focused search engine with its own independent index. High-quality results without tracking. | Yes |
| Web Search (Generic) | A unified web search interface that works across multiple providers. Good default choice when you don't need a specific engine. | Varies |
| Baidu Search | China's largest search engine. Essential for agents serving Chinese-language users. | Yes |
| AgentQL | AI-native search and data extraction. Converts natural language queries into structured web data. | Yes |
| Linkup | Real-time web search optimized for AI agents. Returns structured, up-to-date results with source attribution. | Yes |
| Wikipedia | Search and retrieve Wikipedia articles. Useful for factual lookups and definitions. | No |
| PubMed | Search biomedical and life science literature from the National Library of Medicine. | No |
| ArXiv | Search academic papers across physics, math, CS, and more. | No |
Setting Up a Search Tool
- Go to your agent's Tools section.
- Click Add Tool and select a search tool (e.g., Tavily).
- Enter your API key if required.
- Save — your agent can now search the web.
# Example: Get a Tavily API key
TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-xxxxxxxxxxxxxWeb Scraping Tools
Tools for extracting content from web pages and turning them into clean text.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Firecrawl | Powerful web scraper that handles JavaScript-rendered pages. Returns clean markdown. | Yes |
| Crawl4AI | Open-source web crawler optimized for AI. Handles complex sites. | No |
| JinaReader | Converts any URL into clean, LLM-friendly text. Simple and fast. | Yes |
| Spider | High-performance web crawler with anti-bot handling. | Yes |
| Newspaper | Extracts and parses news articles. Pulls title, authors, text, and images. | No |
| Browserbase | Cloud-hosted headless browsers for scraping JavaScript-heavy sites. Handles authentication, CAPTCHAs, and complex interactions. | Yes |
| Bright Data | Enterprise web data platform with proxy networks and pre-built collectors for structured data extraction at scale. | Yes |
| Oxylabs | Premium proxy and scraping infrastructure. Excellent for large-scale, geo-targeted data collection. | Yes |
| ScrapeGraph | AI-powered scraping that understands page structure. Extracts data using natural language instructions. | Yes |
When to Use Scraping Tools
- Firecrawl — Best for JavaScript-heavy sites (SPAs, dashboards).
- JinaReader — Best for quick, clean text extraction from articles and docs.
- Crawl4AI — Best when you need a free, self-hosted option.
- Newspaper — Best specifically for news articles and blog posts.
Data & Analytics Tools
Tools for querying databases, analyzing CSVs, and working with structured data.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Dash (Self-Learning DB) | Self-learning data agent with 6-layer context. Learns from every query, auto-corrects errors, and gets smarter over time. Inspired by OpenAI's in-house data agent. | Connection string |
| DuckDB | In-process SQL database. Query CSV, Parquet, and JSON files with SQL. | No |
| CSV Tools | Read, filter, and analyze CSV files directly. | No |
| SQL | Connect to any SQL database and run queries. | Connection string |
| PostgreSQL | Direct PostgreSQL database integration for queries and operations. | Connection string |
| BigQuery | Query Google BigQuery datasets. Great for large-scale analytics. | Yes |
| Neo4j | Graph database queries and operations. Ideal for relationship-heavy data like org charts, social networks, and knowledge graphs. | Connection string |
| Pandas | Python-powered data analysis. Transform, filter, aggregate data. | No |
Dash vs PostgreSQL Tool
| Feature | Dash | PostgreSQL |
|---|---|---|
| Schema discovery | Auto-discovers tables, columns, indexes, constraints | Manual |
| Business annotations | Per-table/column notes, metric definitions | None |
| Self-learning | Learns from successful queries and error corrections | None |
| Auto-retry | Diagnoses errors, suggests fixes, retries automatically | None |
| Security | Read-only by default, blocks writes | Full access |
| Visualization | Suggests chart types for results | None |
Use Dash for natural language data analysis where the agent queries a database on behalf of users. Use PostgreSQL for direct database operations where you need full read/write access.
Example: Data Analysis Agent
Assign the DuckDB and CSV tools to create an agent that can analyze uploaded data:
# Agent can answer questions like:
# "What were our top 10 customers by revenue last quarter?"
# "Show me the trend of signups over the past 6 months"
# "Find all orders where the total exceeds $500"Finance Tools
Tools for accessing financial data, stock prices, and market information.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| YFinance | Yahoo Finance data — stock prices, company info, historical data, financials. | No |
| OpenBB | Professional-grade financial data platform. Covers stocks, crypto, forex, and economics. | Yes |
| Financial Datasets | Access curated financial datasets including SEC filings, earnings transcripts, institutional holdings, and economic indicators. | Yes |
| Valyu | Real-time financial data API with market data, company fundamentals, and alternative data signals. | Yes |
Example: Financial Research Agent
# Agent can answer:
# "What's Apple's current stock price?"
# "Compare Tesla and Ford's P/E ratios"
# "Show me Bitcoin's price over the last 30 days"AI Generation Tools
Tools for generating images, audio, and other media using AI models.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| DALL-E 3 | OpenAI's image generation model. Create images from text descriptions. | Yes (OpenAI) |
| ElevenLabs TTS | High-quality text-to-speech. Generate natural-sounding audio. | Yes |
| Replicate | Run open-source AI models (Stable Diffusion, LLaMA, etc.) via API. | Yes |
| FAL | Fast AI model inference. Image generation, video, and more. | Yes |
Productivity Tools
Tools for project management, task tracking, documentation, and scheduling.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Manage repositories, issues, pull requests, and code. | Yes (Token) |
| Linear | Modern project management. Create and update issues, track sprints. | Yes |
| Todoist | Task management. Create, complete, and organize tasks and projects. | Yes |
| Confluence | Atlassian wiki. Search and create documentation pages. | Yes |
| ClickUp | All-in-one project management. Tasks, docs, goals, and more. | Yes |
| Cal.com | Open-source scheduling. Book meetings and manage availability. | Yes |
Communication Tools
Tools for messaging, notifications, and meeting management.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Slack | Send messages, read channels, manage conversations in Slack workspaces. | Yes (Bot Token) |
| Discord | Send messages and interact with Discord servers. | Yes (Bot Token) |
| Telegram | Send messages via Telegram bots. | Yes (Bot Token) |
| Microsoft Teams | Send messages and notifications to Teams channels. | Yes |
| Zoom | Create and manage Zoom meetings. | Yes |
| SMS | Send text messages via Twilio, Plivo, Vonage, and other providers. | Yes |
CRM & Sales Tools
Tools for customer relationship management, lead tracking, and outreach.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | Full CRM — contacts, deals, companies, and pipelines. | Yes |
| Salesforce | Enterprise CRM integration. Query and update Salesforce records. | Yes |
| Professional networking. Search profiles and company data. | Yes | |
| Apollo | B2B sales intelligence. Find contacts, enrich data, manage sequences. | Yes |
| ActiveCampaign | Marketing automation and CRM. Manage contacts and campaigns. | Yes |
Cloud & Infrastructure Tools
Tools for cloud services, serverless functions, and automation.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Lambda | Invoke serverless functions on AWS. | Yes (AWS Credentials) |
| AWS SES | Send emails via Amazon Simple Email Service. | Yes (AWS Credentials) |
| Apify | Web scraping and automation platform. Run pre-built scraping actors. | Yes |
| E2B | Secure cloud sandboxes for running code. Execute Python, Node.js, and more. | Yes |
Google Suite Tools
Deep integrations with Google Workspace. See individual guides for setup.
| Tool | Description | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | Read, search, send, and draft emails. | OAuth |
| Google Calendar | List, create, update, and delete calendar events. | OAuth |
| Google Sheets | Read and write spreadsheet data. | OAuth |
| Google Drive | Search, read, upload, and manage files in Google Drive. Access shared drives and folders. | OAuth |
Memory Tools
Tools for giving agents persistent memory across conversations.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Memory | Built-in memory that persists facts, preferences, and context across sessions. Your agent remembers what users told it in previous conversations. | No |
| Zep Memory | External memory service with automatic entity extraction, relationship tracking, and temporal awareness. Best for complex, long-running agent relationships. | Yes |
When to Use Memory Tools
- Agent Memory — Use when you need simple, built-in persistence (e.g., "remember my name is Alex"). Works out of the box with no external dependencies.
- Zep Memory — Use when you need advanced memory features like entity graphs, automatic summarization, or memory search across thousands of past interactions.
Coding Tools
Tools for writing, executing, and analyzing code.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Coding Tools | Suite of code generation, execution, and analysis capabilities. Agents can write Python, JavaScript, SQL, and more, then execute it in a sandboxed environment. | No |
Example: Data Processing Agent
# Agent can:
# "Write a Python script to clean this CSV data"
# "Generate a SQL query to find duplicate records"
# "Create a chart from this dataset"Orchestration Tools
Tools for managing complex agent workflows and parallel execution.
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Parallel Execution | Run multiple tool calls simultaneously. Speeds up workflows where independent operations can happen at the same time. | No |
| Workflow Tools | Define multi-step workflows with branching logic, loops, and conditional execution. Useful for complex business processes. | No |
When to Use Orchestration Tools
- Parallel Execution — When your agent needs to call multiple APIs or tools at once (e.g., search three databases simultaneously).
- Workflow Tools — When you need structured, repeatable processes with error handling and retry logic.
Other Tools
| Tool | Description | API Key Required |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | Geocoding, directions, place search, and distance calculations. | Yes |
| OpenWeather | Current weather, forecasts, and historical weather data. | Yes |
| Calculator | Mathematical calculations. No setup required. | No |
| File Operations | Read and write files. Useful for document processing workflows. | No |
Configuring API Keys
Most tools require an API key. You can configure these in two ways:
Per-Tool Configuration
When adding a tool to an agent, enter the API key in the tool's configuration panel.
Environment Variables
Set API keys as environment variables for your deployment:
TAVILY_API_KEY=tvly-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
SERP_API_KEY=xxxxxxxxxxxxxNext Steps
- Custom Tools — Build your own tools with custom API endpoints.
- Google Calendar — Step-by-step OAuth setup for calendar integration.
- Gmail — Connect email capabilities to your agent.