Tools and skills

Agents only do extra work when you give them tools. ActonOS has several ways to add them. You do not need all of them.

Kind	When to use it	Where in the UI
Built-in (native) tools	Search, browse, files, shell, notify	Extensions → Native Tools
MCP servers	An MCP server you already run	Native Tools → Connect MCP
Plugins	Custom tools, chat apps, SaaS	Plugins
Skills	A skill.json + script, or a community skill	Extensions → Skills

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Native Tools page

Open Extensions → Native Tools. This page lists built-in tools and MCP tools already registered. Skills have their own page and are filtered out here.

You can:

• Filter All, Native, or MCP.
• Search by name or description.
• Click Test on a tool to run it once with JSON arguments.
• Click Connect MCP to add a server (stdio, Streamable HTTP, or SSE). Secrets go into the vault as mcp.env.<id>.
• Enable or disable a connected MCP server without deleting it.

Details: MCP integration.

Turn individual tools on per agent in Agent Studio.

Built-in tools

These ship with ActonOS:

• Web — native_web_search, native_browser_navigate, native_browser_screenshot
• Your documents — native_workspace_search, native_workspace_read, native_workspace_write, native_workspace_delete. Files keep names such as report.pdf.
• Agent scratchpad — native_file_read / native_file_write for temporary scripts. Those files do not show on the Workspace page until the agent publishes them.
• Shell — native_exec in a sandbox. Workspace files are available by original name under user-workspace/ (ACTONOS_USER_WORKSPACE).
• Chat notify — native_channel_notify sends text or a Workspace file through an installed channel plugin. Pick one specific channel when attaching a file.

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Skills page

Open Extensions → Skills.

• Installed — skills already on this machine. Toggle them on or off, inspect, or uninstall.
• Community Hub — browse and one-click install community skill packages.
• Create Skill — add a new folder skill from the UI.

For a skill you write yourself, the on-disk layout is:

/data/skills/my_custom_skill/
├── skill.json
└── run.sh          # or run.py

ActonOS watches that folder. Add, edit, or delete a skill and it registers without a restart.

Authoring format: Custom skills.

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Plugins

A .actonpkg can expose tools, a chat channel, a SaaS connector, or a mix. Install from Plugins. To write one, use the Plugin SDK.

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Related pages

• Plugins — WASM packages and plugin catalog.
• Workspace — files the native tools open by name.
• Agent Studio — grant tools to an agent.