Agent tools

A core principle of Pods: everything a human can do, an agent can do. This is made possible by the Pods skill, which is available to all agents by default, including the global Dust agent, agents invoked inside a Pod, and triggered agents. The Pods skill provides a set of tools: the individual actions listed on this page.

A note on naming. You may hear these referred to as “Pod tools”. The precise naming: agents have one Pods skill, and that skill provides the tools below. Each individual action, such as create_tasks, is a tool.

There is nothing to enable or configure: when an agent works in or around a Pod, it picks the right tool on its own. The tool names below are the ones shown in the agent’s tool execution details during a run, so you can also use this page to follow what an agent did.

Pod management

Finding and creating Pods

Tool	What it does
`list_pods`	List the Pods the agent can access: the user’s Pods by default, or all Open Pods in the workspace
`create_pod`	Create a new Pod (Restricted by default), optionally with initial members and a set of starter tasks
`get_information`	Read a Pod’s metadata: URL, title, description, visibility, pinned Frame, and linked Company Data
`edit_information`	Update a Pod’s title, description, or visibility (Open or Restricted)

Members

Tool	What it does
`list_members`	List everyone in the Pod with their role (Member or Editor)
`update_members`	Invite, add, remove, promote, or demote Pod members and Editors

Conversations

Tool	What it does
`create_conversation`	Start a new conversation in the Pod, optionally triggering another agent on a task
`add_message_to_conversation`	Post a follow-up message to an existing Pod conversation
`list_conversations`	List recent Pod conversations, optionally unread ones only or with full transcripts
`move_conversation`	Move a conversation into a Pod, or out of a Pod back to personal conversations

Knowledge

Tool	What it does
`semantic_search`	Search Pod files, linked Company Data, and Pod conversation transcripts by meaning
`retrieve_recent_documents`	Fetch the most recently added or updated documents in the Pod’s knowledge
`add_content_node`	Link a document or folder from Company Data to the Pod’s knowledge
`remove_content_node`	Unlink a Company Data reference from the Pod

Pod settings

Tool	What it does
`set_pinned_frame`	Pin a Frame as the Pod banner, or unpin the current one
`set_default_agent`	Set or reset the agent that handles new conversations started in the Pod

Tasks

Tool	What it does
`list_tasks`	List the Pod’s tasks, filtered by assignee (mine or all) and status (open, done, or all)
`create_tasks`	Create up to 30 tasks at once, assigned to a Pod member or left unassigned
`update_tasks`	Update task descriptions, assignees, and states, including marking tasks done
`start_task_agent`	Start an agent on an open task: creates the linked conversation and moves the task to In progress

See Tasks for how these show up in the Tasks tab, including syncing with external tools like Jira, Asana, or Linear.

Files

Agents work with Pod files through Dust’s shared file system tools rather than Pod-specific tools. Inside a Pod, these let an agent:

List and browse the Pod’s files and folders
Read file contents
Create new files, including agent-generated artifacts such as Frames
Edit, copy, move, and delete existing files
Import a file into the Pod from a URL

Files created or updated by agents appear in the Files tab and are immediately available to all Pod members and other agents.

Permissions

Agent tools follow the same permission model as the Dust interface: an agent acting on behalf of a user can only do what that user could do themselves.

A Restricted Pod the user is not a member of is not accessible to their agents
Managing membership, settings, visibility, and the pinned Frame requires the user to be a Pod Editor

See Members and roles for the full role breakdown, and Admin controls for workspace-level policies.

See it in action

These tools are what make Pods a natural target for automations: a triggered agent can post a daily brief into a Pod, open a conversation when a ticket arrives, or keep Pod tasks in sync with an external tool.

Conversations and Tasks: concrete patterns
Examples: Ticket handling and support knowledge, One Pod per customer, Competitive intelligence

Latest Updates

Use cases

Agents

Skills

Capabilities

Pods

Admins

Developers

Deprecated

Pod management

Finding and creating Pods

Members

Conversations

Knowledge

Pod settings

Tasks

Files

Permissions

See it in action

​Pod management

​Finding and creating Pods

​Members

​Conversations

​Knowledge

​Pod settings

​Tasks

​Files

​Permissions

​See it in action

Pod management

Finding and creating Pods

Members

Conversations

Knowledge

Pod settings

Tasks

Files

Permissions

See it in action