Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Creating a Custom Function Calling Tool in Generative AI Agents

In Generative AI Agents, each agent must have one or more tools. You can create an agent's tool during or after creating the agent. For both options, creating a tool has the same steps. This section shows you the steps to create a function calling tool.

Creating a Function Calling Tool

  1. Select Create tool.
  2. Select Custom tool.
  3. (Optional) Enter the following information:
    • Name: A name for the custom tool that starts with a letter or underscore, followed by letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores. The length can be from 1 to 255 characters.
    • Description: An optional description.
  4. Under Tool configuration, select Function calling
  5. Enter the following information:
    • Name: A name for the function that starts with a letter or underscore, followed by letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores. The length can be from 1 to 255 characters.
    • Description: An optional description.
  6. For the Function parameters, enter the parameters that the function accepts in a JSON format.
    Here are some examples:
    // Get Compute Instance Details
{
            "name": "get_compute_instance_details",
            "description": "Fetch details of an OCI Compute instance given an instance OCID.",
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "instance_ocid": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The OCID of the compute instance."
                    },
                    "compartment_ocid": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The OCID of the compartment containing the instance."
                    }
                },
                "required": ["instance_ocid"],
                "additionalProperties": false
            }
        }


// Create an Object Storage Bucket
{
            "name": "create_object_storage_bucket",
            "description": "Creates a new bucket in OCI Object Storage within a specified compartment.",
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "bucket_name": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The name of the bucket to create."
                    },
                    "compartment_ocid": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The OCID of the compartment where the bucket will be created."
                    },
                    "storage_tier": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "enum": ["Standard", "Archive"],
                        "description": "The storage tier for the bucket."
                    }
                },
                "required": ["bucket_name", "compartment_ocid"],
                "additionalProperties": false
            }
        }


// Check Database Service Status
{
            "name": "check_database_status",
            "description": "Checks the operational status of an OCI Autonomous Database instance.",
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "db_ocid": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The OCID of the database instance."
                    }
                },
                "required": ["db_ocid"],
                "additionalProperties": false
            }
        }

// List Available Load Balancers
{
            "name": "list_load_balancers",
            "description": "Lists all load balancers in the given compartment in OCI.",
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "compartment_ocid": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The OCID of the compartment containing the load balancers."
                    }
                },
                "required": ["compartment_ocid"],
                "additionalProperties": false
            }
        }
  7. Select Create tool.
  8. Review the steps in Setting up a function using Java SDK.
Tip

Perform one of the following actions:

  • If you're creating an agent, go back to Creating an Agent in Generative AI Agents to create another tool or an endpoint.
  • If you added the tool to an existing agent, after the tool is active, from the agent's detail page, select Launch chat to chat with the agent using this tool.
  • If you created the agent without an endpoint, when you're ready to use the agent, create an endpoint for this agent.