Standard versus custom Agentforce actions
Key Takeaway
Standard actions are ready-made tools for common tasks. Custom actions cover business-specific processes that the standard library doesn't, and you build each one on underlying functionality, such as a flow, that you create first.
Actions are the tools an Agentforce agent uses to get work done, such as finding records or drafting an email. Standard actions are a ready-made library from Salesforce for common tasks. Custom actions let you turn your own flows, prompt templates, Apex classes, or external services into agent tools for business-specific processes.
How an agent uses actions
An agent is made up of subagents, and each subagent has instructions and a set of actions. When a user makes a request, the agent picks the right subagent and then launches the right actions within it.
An action's name, description, inputs, and outputs tell the agent what the action does and when and how to use it. Better instructions make the action perform more predictably, which leads to more reliable conversations.
Action instructions, including input and output instructions, are supported in English only. If you write them in another language, the agent's reasoning engine may not perform as expected.