# How tools work

> Tools connect agents and chats to outside systems. One page on connecting, credentials, and what to do when a call fails.

Source: https://cotera.co/docs/guides/tools/how-tools-work

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Tools are how Cotera acts on the world: searching, scraping, reading and writing CRMs, spreadsheets, Slack, and a hundred other systems. Agents use tools you give them; Coco can use any connected tool directly in chat.

## Three kinds of setup

* **No setup** — tools like **Google Search** and **Site Scraper** work immediately. Start here.
* **Sign in once** — tools like **Slack** and **HubSpot** ask you to sign in to the underlying service the first time. Others are even lighter: **Google Sheets** just needs Cotera's email address given access to your spreadsheet. Either way, Cotera stores the connection for your whole org.
* **API key** — some tools ask for an API key from the provider. The tool's page in the [catalog](https://cotera.co/docs/reference/tools/individual-tools.md) shows exactly where to get it.

## Connecting a tool

Open **Tools** from the sidebar (or just ask Coco to use a tool — it will prompt you to connect if needed). Connections are org-wide: once anyone connects a tool, every agent and teammate can use it.

## Giving tools to an agent

An agent can only use the tools it's been given — that's a feature, not a limitation. Scope each agent to the few tools its job needs; it makes the agent faster, cheaper, and far more predictable.

## When a tool call fails

Failures show up in the transcript on the tool call itself. The common causes, in order:

1. **The connection expired or was revoked** — reconnect the tool from **Tools**.
2. **Rate limits** — heavy loops can exceed a provider's limits; the call usually succeeds on retry.
3. **The thing doesn't exist** — a deleted Slack channel, a suspended Twitter/X account, a bad URL. Fix the input, not the connection.

If an agent keeps failing on the same call in a loop, stop it and check the input it's using — agents will faithfully retry a wrong channel name forever. More in [Troubleshooting](https://cotera.co/docs/troubleshooting.md).