> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.ada.cx/2026-08-21-code-tools/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.ada.cx/_mcp/server.

# Code tools: run sandboxed Python inside a conversation

Code tools let an AI Agent run a small piece of sandboxed Python during a conversation to reshape data, compute a value, or return only what it needs. A code tool does everything an API tool does — call an external endpoint and get data back — and can also run logic on the result before the Agent uses it.

Code tools are authored via Ada's MCP Server or the Platform API. Over Ada's MCP Server, you describe the tool to an AI assistant and authoring goes through a change set (describe, generate, stage, test, then promote), so a tool never affects live conversations until it is approved. A push through the Platform API writes the tool directly, with no change-set step. Add a tool to a Playbook step for the Agent to run mid-conversation (recommended), or invoke it directly like an API tool.

Alongside this release, Actions are now called API tools — the tool type that connects an AI Agent to an external endpoint. This is a naming change only; setup, configuration, and behavior are unchanged.

To learn more, see [Code tools](/docs/automation/tools/code-tools) and [API tools](/docs/automation/tools/api-tools).