Manage tool access

When you enable tools in Admin console → Platform → Tools, you can restrict which users or groups can invoke those tools in Chat and agents. This is called visibility scoping and is separate from who can configure tools in Agent Builder.

Two distinct access controls

Admin configurations control two entirely separate layers of access: who can use the tool versus who can build with it.

Setting	What it controls	Where to configure
Visibility scope	Dictates which end users can see and invoke the tool within Chat or agents	Admin console → Tools → Edit settings → Make available to
Role-based access	Dictates which admins and builders can view and add this tool when constructing an agent	Admin console → Tools → Manage role-based access

This page covers visibility scope only. For builder-level access, see Managing tool access.

How visibility scoping works

By default, when you enable tools, they're available to everyone in your Glean workspace. You can restrict this to specific users, departments, or groups.

End-user experience outside the visibility scope

If a user falls outside the visibility scope of a tool but attempts to trigger it, the system behavior depends on the interface:

• In Glean: The tool is completely hidden. It does not appear as an available tool, and Glean will ignore explicit user requests to invoke it.
• In Agents: If the agent is shared with the user, the specific tool step fails silently. The agent will bypass the step and attempt to complete the remaining workflow.

Configure visibility scoping

1. Navigate to Glean Admin console.
2. Click Tools.
3. Click the tool you want to configure and navigate to the Configuration tab.
4. Click Edit settings under Enable tools.
5. Under Make tools visible for all or some teammates, select either:
   • Agent
   • Chat
6. Under Access change the scope to:
   • All teammates
   • Specific department name
   • Specific teammate name
7. Click Save. The changes take effect immediately.

Recommended scoping by rollout stage

To ensure a secure and stable deployment, expand the visibility scope of your tool progressively using the following phased approach:

Stage	Recommended scope
Initial pilot	Specific users — limit to your test group or IT and ops team
Departmental rollout	Specific departments — for example, Engineering only for Jira tools
Full rollout	Everyone

Visibility scope vs agent sharing

If an agent uses a tool that's scoped to specific users, the tool only executes successfully for users within that scope — even if the agent itself is shared more broadly.

warning

A Jira agent shared with the entire company but backed by Jira Extension Tools scoped to Engineering only will fail the Jira tool step for non-Engineering users. Either broaden the tool's visibility scope or narrow the agent's sharing scope to match.

Troubleshooting

If a user reports that a tool is available for some colleagues but not for them, check these three settings in order:

1. Visibility scope — the user's account or department isn't included in the Make available to setting.
2. Chat vs Agents toggle — the tool is enabled for Agents only, not Chat. See Enabling tools for Chat vs Agents.
3. Individual tool disabled — the specific tool they need is unchecked. See Per-tool enable/disable.

For questions and support, reach out to the Glean support team.