Agents & Blocks

The five kinds of Block, and how they connect.

An Agent is the reasoning core of a Flow — the block that decides what to do. Everything else (Tools, Actions, Triggers, DataSources) exists to give an Agent its inputs and outputs.

Agent

An Agent needs three things:

1. A role — plain-language instructions describing what it should do.
2. A model — GPT-, Claude-, Gemini-class, or one of Nora’s own. Change any time without rewriting the Flow.
3. Its Blocks — the Tools it can call, the DataSources it can search, the Actions that run after it.

Role:  You are a support assistant for FinCorp.
       Answer account and fee questions. If unsure, say so.
Model: GPT-4-class (default)
Tools: [look-up-account, calc-fee]
Data:  [help-center, policy-docs]

Tool

A Tool is one thing the Agent can call. Examples:

• An HTTP request to your backend (GET /accounts/{id})
• A code snippet that computes something
• A prebuilt integration (e.g., Google Sheets read)

You describe the tool in plain language — Nora generates the calling schema so the Agent knows when to use it.

Action

An Action runs after the Agent produces an answer. Think “side effects”.

• Send an email
• Post to Slack
• Write to a Google Sheet
• Notify a webhook

Actions are optional. A pure Q&A Flow has none.

Trigger

A Trigger is what starts the Flow. One Flow, one Trigger (for now). Options include:

• Chat — a user sends a message from your app or the Nora chat panel
• Webhook — an external system POSTs a payload
• Schedule — cron-style, e.g. every hour

DataSource

A DataSource is a searchable body of knowledge attached to the Agent. Documents, spreadsheets, or a database.

The Agent decides when to search and what to look for. You just point at the source.

How they connect

Blocks are wired on the canvas. Typical Flow:

[Trigger: chat message]
        ↓
[Agent: support-agent]  ←── [DataSource: help center]
        ↓                    [Tool: look-up-account]
[Action: log to CRM]

You don’t hand-write the wiring — dragging a connection between two block ports is enough.