Enable tools for Glean Assistant and Agents

When you add a tool in the Glean Admin console, you must define the specific surfaces where teammates can interact with the tool in Glean Assistant, Agents, or both.

note

In the Admin console, this setting is still labeled Chat. In this article, Assistant refers to that same capability.

What the toggles control

Toggle	What it enables
Chat	Users can invoke the tools conversationally in Glean by typing a request like "Create a Jira ticket for this."
Agents	The tool is available as a step when building or running agents.

You can enable one without the other. For example, you might enable Jira tools for Agents only while you pilot the feature with a small group, before opening it up in Assistant.

Why the Chat toggle may be unavailable

Not all tools are supported in Glean Assistant. The Chat toggle is only available for tools that are validated for conversational, single-turn use. Tools designed specifically for multi-step agent workflows may only expose the Agents toggle.

If the Chat toggle is dimmed for a tool, that tool is Agents-only and cannot be invoked directly from the Glean Assistant interface.

Configuration steps

To configure tool availability for Glean Assistant or agents:

1. Open the Glean Admin console.

2. Go to Platform → Tools.

3. Select the tool you want to configure, then open the Configuration tab.

4. Under Enable tools, click Edit settings.

5. Choose where to make the tools available:

   • Agents: Use this to enable or disable the tools in agents.
   • Chat: Use this to enable or disable the tools in Glean Assistant.
   note

   Tools must be assigned to at least one member or team. If a tool is unassigned, it is automatically disabled in both Glean Assistant and Agents.

6. Click Save. Changes take effect immediately. You do not need to re-crawl or restart anything.

Troubleshooting

If a user reports that a tool works when run inside an agent but isn't available in Glean Assistant, the most likely cause is that the Chat toggle is turned off for that tool. Check Admin console → Platform → Tools → Edit settings and verify the Chat toggle is enabled.

note

This is separate from user-level visibility. Even if the tool is enabled for Chat, individual users may not see it if their user group is not included in the access scope. See Managing tool access for more information.

If an agent creator cannot find a specific tool in the agent builder, confirm the Agents toggle is enabled for that tool and that the creator is included in the access scope.

For any further issues or questions, reach out to the Glean support team.