Adding agents from third-party platforms

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Import external agents from third-party platforms into IBM watsonx Orchestrate to extend your orchestration with capabilities from external services.

Before you begin

Before you begin, confirm that you have:

  • Access to the external platform that hosts the agent, for example, a third-party provider or a custom service.

  • A running, accessible external agent endpoint.

Procedure

  1. On the agent edit page, click Toolset > Add agent.

  2. Click Import from external sources > External agent.

  3. On the Agent type step, select the protocol that the external agent uses from the External protocol list:

    External agent via A2A standard
    Select this option if the external agent implements the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol.
    External agent via chat completion
    Select this option if the external agent exposes an OpenAI-compatible chat completions API.
    watsonx.ai
    Select this option if the external agent is deployed on watsonx.ai.

  4. On the Register step, enter the agent details. The required fields depend on the protocol you selected:

    • For External agent via A2A standard:

      A2A protocol version
      Select the version that the external agent supports.
      External agent's URL
      Enter the endpoint URL of the external agent.
      Display name
      Enter a name for the agent as it appears in IBM watsonx Orchestrate.
      Description of agent capabilities
      Enter a description of what the agent does. A clear description helps route user requests to the right agent. For guidance, see Recommendations for agent descriptions.
      Advanced settings (optional)
      Enable Support streaming, Support push notifications, or Send conversation history based on what the external agent supports.

    • For External agent via chat completion:

      External agent's URL
      Enter the endpoint URL of the external agent.
      Display name
      Enter a name for the agent as it appears in IBM watsonx Orchestrate.
      Description of agent capabilities
      Enter a description of what the agent does.
      Advanced settings (optional)
      Enable Support streaming, Support push notifications, or Send conversation history based on what the external agent supports.

    • For watsonx.ai:

      Service instance URL
      Enter the URL of your watsonx.ai instance.
      Display name
      Enter a name for the agent as it appears in IBM watsonx Orchestrate.
      Description of agent capabilities
      Enter a description of what the agent does.

  5. On the Connect step, add or select a connection. The connection defines how IBM watsonx Orchestrate authenticates with the external agent. For more information, see Adding an agent-to-agent connection.

  6. Click Done. The confirmation message indicates that the agent was successfully imported.

What to do next

  • Set the agent's behavior and guidelines so that it responds accurately in your use cases. See Configuring agent behavior.

  • Use Preview to test the imported agent and confirm it returns the expected responses.