AI Agent node

An AI agent is an autonomous system that receives data, makes rational decisions, and acts within its environment to achieve specific goals. The AI agent’s environment is everything the agent can access that isn’t the agent itself. This agent uses external tools and APIs to perform actions and retrieve information. It can understand the capabilities of different tools and determine which tool to use depending on the task.

Note

Connect a tool You must connect at least one tool sub-node to an AI Agent node.

Note

Agent type Prior to version 1.82.0, the AI Agent had a setting for working as different agent types. This has now been removed and all AI Agent nodes work as a Tools Agent which was the recommended and most frequently used setting. If you’re working with older versions of the AI Agent in workflows or templates, as long as they were set to ‘Tools Agent’, they should continue to behave as intended with the updated node.

Templates and examples

Agent types

The AI Agent supports different agent types for specific use cases:

Active agent types

  • Tools Agent - The default and recommended agent type. Uses external tools and APIs with enhanced tool-calling capabilities and standard output format support.

  • OpenAI Functions Agent - Specialized agent for OpenAI function calling models. Requires the OpenAI Chat Model.

  • Plan and Execute Agent - Creates a high-level plan first, then executes it step by step. Best for tasks requiring structured planning.

Deprecated agent types

The following agent types were removed in February 2025:

Common issues

For common errors or issues and suggested resolution steps, refer to Common Issues.