Built-in Tools
Your AI agent comes with built-in capabilities that allow it to take actions during conversations. You don't need to configure anything — simply describe what you want the agent to do in your Additional General Instructions.
Overview
Built-in tools are actions your agent can perform automatically based on your instructions. Write in natural language — the agent figures out which tool to use.
| Capability | What It Does | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| Search knowledge base | Find answers from your FAQs and content | Knowledge base content |
| Search products | Find products matching customer criteria | Product integration |
| Show product carousel | Display products with images and links | Product integration |
| Show image carousel | Display custom cards with images and buttons | — |
| Send media | Share images, videos, documents | — |
| Send tappable options | Ask a question with quick-reply buttons the customer taps | — |
| Send location | Share a place as a map pin or link | — |
| Save customer info | Update customer profile and tags | — |
| Handover | Hand the chat to a human team, with a summary | Handover reasons assigned |
| Resolve | Close the chat and record why it ended | Resolve reasons (optional) |
| Schedule follow-up | Schedule, cancel, or check the chat's next automated review | — |
| Track order | Look up an order's status by its order number | Shopify integration |
| Get Instagram post | Fetch a post's caption, type, and permalink by media ID | Instagram integration |
| Send OTP | Send a verification code to the customer's phone | WhatsApp integration |
| Verify OTP | Verify the code the customer provides | Send OTP sent first |
Searching Information
Knowledge Base Search
Your agent can search through your knowledge base to find answers to customer questions.
How to instruct your agent:
Before answering questions about our policies, search the knowledge base first.
When customers ask about shipping or returns, look up the information before responding.
If you don't know the answer, search our FAQ before saying you don't know.
Product Search
This capability requires products in your catalog — either manual products, Shopify, or Zid.
Your agent can search your product catalog to find items matching customer requests. It can filter by:
- Text descriptions (semantic search)
- Categories
- Brands/vendors
- Price ranges
- Product attributes (size, color, etc.)
How to instruct your agent:
When customers ask about products, search our catalog to find matching items.
If a customer mentions a budget, filter products within their price range.
Help customers find products by asking about their preferences, then search accordingly.
Sending Rich Content
Product Carousels
This capability requires a product catalog.
After searching for products, your agent can display them in an interactive carousel. Each card shows the product image, a caption you specify, and a button linking to the product page.
How to instruct your agent:
After finding products, show the top 3-5 matches as a carousel.
When recommending products, display them visually so customers can see the images.
Present product options in a carousel format with prices in the captions.
Limitations:
- Maximum 10 products per carousel
- Products must have images to display properly
Image Carousels (Custom)
Your agent can send custom image carousels with links — perfect for promotions, menus, or any content where you want to show images with clickable buttons.
Each card can include:
- Header text (title)
- Footer text (subtitle/description)
- Image
- Button with link
How to instruct your agent:
When showing our service packages, display them as a carousel with images and "Learn More" buttons.
Present menu options visually with images and links to each section.
Best for:
- Service packages or pricing tiers
- Menu items or categories
- Promotional content with external links
- Any content where your API tool returns image URLs and links
Example scenario: Your external API returns data like:
{
"packages": [
{ "name": "Basic", "image": "https://...", "link": "https://...", "price": "$99" }
]
}
Instruct your agent:
Display packages as a carousel showing the package name, price, and image with a button to view details.
Media Messages
Your agent can send images, videos, audio files, and documents directly in the conversation.
How to instruct your agent:
If you have a relevant image or document, send it to the customer.
When explaining installation, send the instruction manual PDF.
Share product images when discussing specific items.
Platform differences:
| Platform | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Each file sent as a separate message | |
| Multiple images may be grouped together |
See WhatsApp Features and Instagram Features for platform-specific details.
Tappable Options (Quick Replies)
When your agent asks a question with a known set of answers — confirm or cancel, pick a size, choose a time slot — it can send those answers as tappable buttons instead of listing them in text. The customer taps one, and the tap arrives back as their reply.
The question travels together with the buttons in a single message, and the agent won't repeat the options as text.
How to instruct your agent:
When asking the customer to choose a cake size, present Small, Medium, and Large as tappable options.
Before confirming the order, ask "Shall I place the order?" with Confirm and Cancel buttons.
When offering appointment slots, show the available times as options the customer can tap.
Limitations:
- 2–10 options per message, each label up to 20 characters
- On WhatsApp, 1–3 options render as reply buttons and 4–10 as a tap-to-open list — automatically, nothing to configure
- On Instagram, options render as quick replies
- Not available on email — a mail client has no way to tap back
Platform rendering:
| Platform | What the customer sees |
|---|---|
| Reply buttons (up to 3) or a list menu (4–10) | |
| Quick-reply chips under the message | |
| Web Chat | Tappable buttons inside the chat bubble |
Location Messages
Your agent can send a place — your store, a pickup point, an event venue — from coordinates you put in its instructions. Each channel shows it in its native form; you never need to think about which channel the customer is on.
How to instruct your agent:
If a customer asks where we are located, send our location: latitude 23.5859, longitude 58.4059, name "Muscat Grand Mall branch".
After confirming a pickup order, send the pickup point location.
Platform rendering:
| Platform | What the customer sees |
|---|---|
| A native map pin with the place name and address | |
| Web Chat | An interactive map in the conversation |
| Instagram / Email | A Google Maps link with the place name |
Customers can also share their own location with you — it appears on a map in your inbox, and the agent can read it.
Managing Customer Information
Saving Customer Details
Your agent can save information customers share during the conversation to their customer profile:
- Name
- Email address
- Phone number (with country code)
- Address
- Country
- Language preference
- Profile notes (temperament, preferences, interests)
- Custom tags
- Any custom attributes you've defined
How to instruct your agent:
When customers share their contact information, save it to their profile.
After learning the customer's name, update their profile.
Tag customers based on their interests or the products they're asking about.
Note the customer's preferences in their profile for future reference.
Notes:
- The agent will only save information explicitly shared by the customer
- Phone numbers should include country codes
- Language is detected automatically from the conversation
Customer Tags
You can define tags in your system, and the agent can apply them based on the conversation.
How to instruct your agent:
If a customer is interested in bulk orders, tag them as a wholesale lead.
Tag VIP customers when they mention they're repeat buyers.
Apply the "needs follow-up" tag when a customer says they'll think about it.
Conversation Management
Handover to Human
Your agent can hand a conversation to your human team. What triggers a handover is configured with handover reasons — conditions like "the customer asked for a human" — rather than ad-hoc prompt text.
The agent won't transfer in the middle of an answer. It offers to connect the customer, and Orki hands the chat over when the customer's own message clearly matches one of your reasons or they accept the offer. The receiving team gets a short summary of the conversation.
To set this up, define and assign your reasons on the Handover Reasons page.
Want conversations to move between multiple AI specialists automatically? Link them as Sibling Agents and Orki's coordinator will handle routing for you.
Resolving Conversations
Your agent closes a conversation when it's genuinely finished — the customer said goodbye, confirmed they're all set, or a resolve condition applies. Closing is silent (no message to the customer) and clears any pending follow-up.
Configure resolve reasons so each closure is recorded with a reason (e.g. "Customer Confirmed Resolved", "Order Placed"). When reasons are assigned, the agent picks the matching one as it closes the chat — which powers your closures-by-reason reporting.
Scheduling Follow-ups
Your agent can schedule, cancel, or check the chat's next automated review — the moment it will look at the conversation again and decide whether to re-engage. The agent can set it with a delay (e.g., "in 2 hours") or an absolute time.
Follow-ups are bounded by the messaging window: the agent can only schedule within roughly 24 hours of the customer's last message.
How to instruct your agent:
If the customer says they'll check and get back to you, schedule a follow-up
for a few hours later.
See Follow-up for how automated reviews work.
Order Tracking
This capability requires a connected Shopify integration.
Your agent can look up the status of an order by its order number (e.g., #1042). The result includes the payment and fulfillment status, estimated/in-transit/delivered timestamps, and — when available — the tracking carrier, tracking number, and tracking URL.
How to instruct your agent:
When a customer asks about their order, ask for their order number, then look
up its status and share the tracking link if available.
Instagram Post Lookup
This capability requires a connected Instagram integration.
Your agent can fetch details about an Instagram post by its media ID — the caption, media type (image/video/carousel), and permalink. Useful when a customer comments on or references one of your posts.
Phone Verification (OTP)
Your agent can verify a customer's identity by sending a one-time password (OTP) to their phone number and asking them to confirm the code.
How It Works
- The agent sends an OTP code to the customer's WhatsApp number
- The customer receives the code and replies with it
- The agent verifies the code matches
- Once verified, the protected action proceeds
When Is It Used?
OTP verification is triggered automatically when a customer tries to use an API tool that has "Require verified phone number" enabled in its Security settings. You don't need to write custom instructions for this — the agent handles the verification flow on its own.
Once verified, the customer stays verified for the configured validity period (default: 14 days) and won't be asked again during that time.
For WhatsApp customers, the phone number is auto-detected. For Instagram or web chat customers, the agent will first ask for a WhatsApp number to send the code to.
Writing Effective Instructions
Add these instructions to your agent's Additional General Instructions.
Be Specific About Triggers
Instead of vague instructions, be clear about when actions should happen:
| Less Effective | More Effective |
|---|---|
| "Help with products" | "When customers ask about products, search the catalog and show matching items" |
| "Use carousels" | "Display product recommendations as a carousel after searching" |
| "Save information" | "When customers share their email or phone, save it to their profile" |
Describe the Flow
Explain the sequence of actions:
When a customer asks about a product:
1. Search for matching products in our catalog
2. If found, show the top 3 options as a carousel
3. Ask if they'd like more options or different filters
4. If nothing matches, apologize and offer to help them find alternatives
Set Conditions
Tell the agent when NOT to do something:
Only hand over to a human after:
- Confirming the customer wants to speak with someone
- Attempting to resolve their issue first
Don't resolve conversations if:
- The customer seems frustrated
- There are unanswered questions
- The customer said they'll "be back"
Use Natural Language
You don't need technical terms. Write instructions as if you're training a human employee:
When customers ask about our return policy, look it up in our knowledge base
and share the relevant information. If they want to start a return, collect
their order number and email, then hand over to the returns team.
Common Scenarios
E-commerce Agent
Help customers find products by asking about their needs. Search our catalog
and show matching items as a carousel. Save their preferences to their profile.
If they want to place an order and we can't process it through chat, hand over
to sales.
Customer Support Agent
When customers have questions, search our knowledge base first. If you can't
find the answer or the issue is complex, hand over to support. Always save
any contact information they share. Resolve when their issue is addressed.
Lead Generation Agent
Collect customer information during the conversation - name, email, phone,
and their interests. Tag them based on what they're looking for. If they're
a serious buyer, hand over to sales. Otherwise, make sure their profile is
complete before resolving.
Next Steps
- Creating API Tools — Connect to external APIs for custom capabilities
- Agent Personality — Configure Custom Instructions
- Handover Settings — Set up handover reasons and routing