We just published a walkthrough video about how to connect Actions to your Pickaxe.
I wanted to quickly go over the main points and encourage you all to connect some Actions to your Pickaxes.
WHAT IS AN ACTION?
An Action is a button that your Pickaxe can press to access other pieces of software on the internet. It can either send data out (a report to be emailed) or pull data in (get stock market information). Because the AI is actually pressing the button, you can use prompting to explain when and how to use the Action.
WHERE DO YOU FIND ACTIONS?
Actions are under the “Act” tab in both the form builder and the chatbot builder.
HOW DO I CONNECT AN ACTION?
To connect to an existing action, simply scroll through our menu of community actions. This area is growing all the time. Find the one you want, and then click “Connect”. You’ll then be asked to ‘set up’ the action. Each action is a little different. Some require entering an API key or a webhook url. Others don’t. All of them will require you to write a Trigger Prompt. This is a brief prompt that explains when your Pickaxe should use this action and how.
HOW DO I CONTROL WHEN THE ACTION IS USED?
You can control the Action both in the normal prompt and in the Action’s “trigger prompt”. For example, you may want the chatbot to send an email whenever the user says “contact the admins for me”. You can explain this in the trigger prompt and the Pickaxe will know to only use this action under those circumstances.
HOW DO I EDIT ACTIONS?
All your currently connected Actions appear in the Connected Actions section. You can turn these actions off, turn them on, and edit the trigger prompt at any time within the builder.
HOW DO I CREATE MY OWN NEW ACTION?
You can create your own custom action by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the Act tab to where it says Your Actions Library. Then click on “Build new action”. This is a little more complicated and may even require a little coding based on what you’re trying to build. We will be simplifying this process in the coming weeks.
If you want to give it a try, Chatbot Insider did a tutorial video on building new Pickaxe Actions. You can check it out!
WHAT’S NEXT?
We have a lot planned for Actions. We think it will be a powerful new feature. Some plans include:
- We’ll be creating a lot more educational content around Actions.
- We’ll be simplifying the process for building new custom Actions.
- We’ll be adding a lot of new pre-made Actions with easy connection processes.




