Build Foundry functions

A function is something Foundry can do, like “send a DocuSign envelope” or “look up a Salesforce contact.” You build it by describing what you want, and Foundry writes and tests the code for you. Functions live inside the Foundry app (in the workspace sidebar between Agents and Workflows). They use integrations created by your org admins in Settings → Integrations.

The workspace

Open Foundry from the sidebar. The left panel has two tabs:

Functions. Every function in your workspace, with their last test status (Passing, Failing, or Never run). Click New Function to start a new one.
Integrations. Every integration available to Foundry. The New Integration button takes you to Settings.

When you open a function, the right side becomes the function workspace with the generated code and a publish button. The panel on the left shifts into four tabs for that function:

Chat. The conversation Foundry uses to generate and refine code.
Test. Run the function with sample inputs.
Integrations. Connect or disconnect integrations for this function.
Configure. Edit the name, description, and AI tool prompt, or delete the function.

Build a function

Create the function

In Foundry’s Functions tab, click New Function. A blank function opens in the workspace.

Connect integrations

Open the function’s Integrations tab and connect the integration the function should call. You can add more than one, which is useful when a function needs to read from one tool and write to another. The first integration is the primary one and supplies the function’s default scope and OAuth connected account.If you don’t have the integration you need, an admin can create one in Settings → Integrations.

Describe what it should do

In the Chat tab, write what you want the function to do in plain language. Be specific:

List all active users and return their name, email, and role

Create a project with the given name, description, and team

Look up a contact by email and return their company and last activity date

Foundry generates code, type-checks it, and runs a dry-run against the API.

Test with real inputs

Open the Test tab, fill in the inputs, pick a runtime environment (development, staging, or production), and click Run Test. Foundry shows the result, every HTTP request the function made, and any log output.Turn on Dry Run in the function workspace header to test without changing external state. See Dry Run mode below.

Refine in chat

If something isn’t right, ask in plain language from the Chat tab:

Add pagination so it fetches every page.

If the API returns a 429, wait and retry up to 3 times.

Only return users where status is active.

Publish

Click Publish in the function workspace. Foundry validates the code one more time, generates an AI tool prompt (so agents know when to call it), and publishes the function. It’s now available as a workflow step and as a tool for your AI agents.

Foundry shows generation status (Idle, In progress, Success, or Error) in the function workspace, so if a generation stalls or fails, you can see why.

Want prompts you can copy? See Foundry examples for worked recipes, or Tips & troubleshooting for ways to get better code out of Foundry.

Dry Run mode

Dry Run lets you exercise a function end-to-end without changing external state. Use it to safely test functions that send email, create tickets, post messages, or update records. Turn on the Dry Run toggle in the function workspace header, then click Run Test from the Test tab as usual. When you publish a function, Foundry analyzes the code and picks one of two strategies. The active strategy shows up in the toggle’s tooltip:

Strategy	When Foundry picks it	What runs
As-is	The function only reads or searches (no external writes).	The original code runs live.
Variant	The function makes at least one state-changing call (create, update, delete, send, etc.).	Foundry runs a generated copy of the code where only the writes are mocked. Reads stay live, so bad inputs and auth errors surface exactly like a real run.

A few things to know:

Dry Run is available once a function has been published or had its dry-run code generated. New, never-published functions show the toggle disabled.
The code editor switches to read-only while Dry Run is on, and a banner tells you which strategy is active. Turn Dry Run off before editing.
Each mocked write is logged in the test output so you can see exactly what the function would have done.
If you change the function and the dry-run variant looks stale, click the Sparkles button next to the toggle to regenerate it. Only workspace admins can regenerate dry-run code.
dryRun is also exposed on the POST /foundry/actions/run-test API via the useDryRunVariant flag.

Dry Run is the safest way to test a function against production credentials. Use it whenever a failed test would create unwanted side effects, like duplicate tickets or real customer notifications.

Advanced: the ActionContext SDK

This section is for users who want to read or hand-edit the generated TypeScript code. You don’t need any of this to build, test, or publish a function. Every function exports a run function that receives an ActionContext. The context gives you authenticated HTTP clients (one per integration), the Ravenna operations namespace, and runtime info.

import type { ActionContext } from '@ravenna/actions'

export async function run(ctx: ActionContext, input: RunInput): Promise<RunOutput> {
  // Each integration is available by its slug, with auth and default headers injected.
  const salesforce = ctx.integrations.salesforce
  const response = await salesforce.fetch(`${salesforce.baseUrl}/services/data/v59.0/query`)
  const { records } = await response.json()

  // Call Ravenna operations the same way you'd call any built-in action.
  await ctx.ravenna.createTicket({
    title: `New account: ${records[0].Name}`,
    queueId: input.queueId,
    statusId: input.statusId,
    requesterId: input.requesterId,
    authorId: input.authorId,
  })

  ctx.log(`Processed ${records.length} records in ${ctx.env}`)

  return { count: records.length }
}

Context properties

Property	What it is
`ctx.integrations`	A map of integration clients keyed by slug. Each has `.fetch` (auth-injected) and `.baseUrl`.
`ctx.ravenna`	The Ravenna operations namespace. See the list below.
`ctx.log()`	Writes to the function’s log output.
`ctx.workspaceId` / `ctx.organizationId`	IDs for the current execution context.
`ctx.env`	`'development'`, `'staging'`, or `'production'`.
`ctx.workflowExecutionId`	Set when the function is running as a workflow step.

ctx.fetch, ctx.baseUrl, and ctx.auth still exist for backwards compatibility but are deprecated. They point at the primary integration. New code should use ctx.integrations.<slug> so it keeps working when more integrations are added to the function.

Ravenna operations

Available on ctx.ravenna: Tickets: createTicket, updateTicket, addTicketComment, setTicketStatus, setTicketPriority, setTicketAssignee, addTicketFollowers, addTicketTags, moveTicket Users: getUser Slack is not a ctx.ravenna operation. To post to Slack from an action, select the Slack integration and call the Slack Web API directly with ctx.integrations.native_slack.fetch. Your workspace’s bot token is attached automatically, so you pass Slack arguments only (such as channel and text), never a workspace or team id.

Foundry actions for Microsoft Teams are not yet available. See the Microsoft Teams integration overview for the current beta scope.

Advanced: how generation and testing work

Foundry validates generated code in two phases, automatically:

TypeScript compilation catches syntax errors, type mismatches, and bad imports. Foundry auto-fixes failures up to 3 times.
Dry-run execution runs the code in a sandbox without making real API calls, to catch issues like malformed URLs. Foundry auto-fixes failures up to 2 times.

When you run a real test from the Test tab, you pick the runtime environment (development, staging, or production) that the function sees via ctx.env. The function runs in an isolated sandbox with the credentials resolved for each of its integrations, limited to 30 seconds per execution. When you publish, Foundry runs a final validation, then generates an AI tool prompt that helps agents decide when to call the function. You can regenerate that prompt from the function’s Configure tab.

Learn how to use published functions in workflows and with AI agents.

Get started

Platform

Tickets

Automate

Measure

The workspace

Build a function

Dry Run mode

Advanced: the ActionContext SDK

Context properties

Ravenna operations

Advanced: how generation and testing work

​The workspace

​Build a function

​Dry Run mode

​Advanced: the ActionContext SDK

​Context properties

​Ravenna operations

​Advanced: how generation and testing work

The workspace

Build a function

Dry Run mode

Advanced: the ActionContext SDK

Context properties

Ravenna operations

Advanced: how generation and testing work