Add tool servers

A tool server is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server: a standard way for another system to offer actions to an AI. Your inventory feed, a pricing calculator or a service-area lookup might have one. Add it here and the assistant can check things on a call that live outside AnswerStack, such as whether a two-bedroom is open in March.

Nothing a server offers reaches a caller straight away. There are three steps, and a person does each one on purpose:

Add the server under Tools.
Review each of its tools, and approve the ones you want.
Use an approved tool in a playbook. See Use tools on calls.

The Tools page listing connected tool servers, each with its address, how it signs in, when it was last checked, and chips for how many tools are approved or waiting for review, above a Catalog section. — Your tool servers at the top, the servers AnswerStack offers underneath.

Who can do what#

Tools is in the main menu for everyone except group managers. Only owners and admins can add servers, review tools and try them. Editors and viewers can see which servers and tools exist. Editors choose where playbooks use them.

Add a server#

Open the dialog
Go to Tools and press Add a tool server.
Name it and paste its address
Field What to put
Name What your team calls it, for example "Inventory".
Server address The MCP address its provider gave you. It has to start with https://.
Press Check server. AnswerStack contacts the server and finds out whether it needs you to sign in. You do not choose; the server says.

Field	What to put
Name	What your team calls it, for example "Inventory".
Server address	The MCP address its provider gave you. It has to start with `https://`.

Give it what it asks for

The dialog says	What to do
This server needs no sign-in.	Press Add server.
This server asks for an API key from its provider.	Fill in Header name (often `x-api-key` or `Authorization`, per the provider's instructions) and API key, then press Add server.
This server asks you to sign in to it.	Press Sign in to and the server's address. A window opens on the provider's own sign-in. Finish there; the dialog updates on its own.

A key is stored encrypted and never shown again. A server that needs sign-in cannot be saved until the sign-in works.

Note

If something goes wrong. The server did not accept that key means the key or the header name is wrong. Check both with the provider. If the sign-in window closes early, open the server and press Reconnect. Only the person who started a sign-in can finish it, in the browser where they are signed in to AnswerStack.

When it is saved you land on the server's page, with its tools listed as Waiting for review.

Only servers on the public internet over HTTPS can be added. AnswerStack never runs a server's code itself.

Review each tool#

A tool's name and description are written by the server's provider, and they would otherwise go straight into the assistant's instructions. Reviewing is where a person reads them first.

On the server's page, press Review next to a tool.

The Review dialog for one tool, showing what the server says the tool does, the fields it asks for and returns, a warning about text that reads like an instruction to an AI, a field for the description the agent will read, and a choice between Only looks things up and Changes something in another system.

Part of the dialog	What it is for
What the server says the tool does	The provider's own description, for you to read. The assistant never sees it.
What it asks for / What it returns	The fields going in and coming out.
Read these parts carefully before approving	Anything that looks suspicious: text that reads like an instruction to an AI, a web address, hidden characters, or unusually long text.
What our agent is told this tool does	Required. Your words, up to 1,000 characters. This is the only description the assistant reads.
What the tool does	Only looks things up, or Changes something in another system. The server gives a hint, but you decide. A tool that changes things follows stricter rules on calls.
Field that prevents doing it twice	Optional, for a tool that changes things. If the tool takes a request key, pick that field and AnswerStack fills it so a retry never acts twice.

Press Approve, or Reject with an optional note. You can change an approved tool's description later with Edit.

Some tools cannot be approved at all, for example one whose fields are too large or too deeply nested. The dialog says why.

Try it#

Every approved tool has a Try it button. Fill in sample values and press Run it to see exactly what the tool answers, before it is anywhere near a call.

A tool that changes something asks you first to tick a box confirming that you understand it changes something in that server's system, for real. It acts on the real system.
If the tool asks for more information, the dialog says On a call, the agent would ask the caller. Answer and press Answer and carry on.

Once a tool has been used, its row shows how many calls used it in the last 30 days, how many failed, how long it took, and which playbooks use it.

Servers from the AnswerStack catalog#

Under Catalog on the Tools page are servers AnswerStack offers. Their tools are already reviewed and approved by us, so you skip the review step and decide only where your playbooks use them.

The Catalog section of the Tools page with one card per server offered by the platform, listing its tools, with Turn on and Connect your account buttons.

Button	Kind of server
Turn on	Managed by AnswerStack. Nothing to sign in to.
Connect your account	A vendor's server that needs your own account with that vendor. You sign in to the vendor in a window, as above.
Connect	A vendor's server that takes your own API key. A small dialog asks for the header name and the key.

A connected catalog server shows Connected: open in the catalog and a From the catalog chip in your list. Your account's sign-in is only ever used for your account.

When a server changes a tool#

AnswerStack checks every server's tools every hour, and again before they run on a call. You can also press Refresh tools on the server's page.

If a server changes a tool you approved, even slightly, that tool stops running on calls at once. It shows as Changed by the server. Press Review to see the approved version beside the new one, then Approve new version or leave it off. Until then the call carries on without it, and the playbook does what you chose for a failure.

A tool the server no longer offers shows as No longer offered.

When a server needs attention#

Status	What it means	What to do
Connected	Working.	Nothing.
Waiting for sign-in	The sign-in was never finished.	Press Reconnect.
Needs reconnecting	The server stopped accepting the saved sign-in or key, or the person who signed in left.	Press Reconnect and sign in again, or paste a new key.
Not answering	The server is failing its checks.	Check with the provider.
Paused: failing lately	More than one in five of its tool calls failed in the last 15 minutes.	Nothing. It resumes on its own once it answers a check.

Owners and admins are emailed when a server needs reconnecting and when one is paused. On a single call, a server that fails three times is skipped for the rest of that call.

Press Remove to take a server away. Its tools stop being available, and its saved sign-in is deleted.

What AnswerStack can switch off#

AnswerStack can withdraw a catalog server or one of its tools, and can turn off an account's own servers (for example over a compliance concern). Revoking a catalog tool is confirmed first, with a count of the accounts whose playbooks use it. If that happens, the tools stop running on the next call, and the playbook's publish checks name each tool that can no longer run. When your own servers are turned off, the catalog's servers keep working.