Training Maven

Actions

Actions are used to trigger Maven App execution to respond to a user question. The LLM chooses which Action to execute based on the question and the current state of the conversation.

Most customers will add Actions to their Agent by installing existing Maven Apps via the App Marketplace. For advanced use cases, Actions can also be created using the Maven API.

Example

The Weatherapi App is a simple app, written by Maven which provides 2 actions when installed:

  • Get the current weather
  • Get a 7 day weather forecast

If a user asks to “reset my password”, that phrase is not at all related to the weather, and so no actions will be called.

But if the user asks for “how hot is it in Boston?”, the get current weather action will be called and the data returned to the LLM. The user will receive a response similar to “It’s 80F”.

On the conversation page for this last example Maven will display that the action was called as well as exactly what data came back from the action code. Note that the action response is never shown directly to the user. Action responses are usually JSON or another machine-readable format. The response is always given to the LLM first.

Actions vs Triggers

Action code is only called in response to a user question, deciding whether an action is called is handled by the LLM. Actions are used to get or update information on behalf of users.

Trigger code is called in response to an event. Trigger code execution is usually used for data reporting - e.g. exporting to a BI tool like Snowflake or updating a Zendesk ticket with a specific tag whenever a user clicks thumbs down.

MCP Server Integration

Another way to integrate 3rd party systems with Maven is through MCP (Model Context Protocol). Any remote MCP Server can be brought into Maven via the MCP Maven app and Maven will acquire the ability to use any of the tools the server exposes as Maven actions.

Quick Start Guide

  1. Generate an authenticated URL pointing to the remote MCP Server using a tool such as smithery.ai
  2. Search for the MCP app in the Maven App directory
  3. Install the app and supply your copied URL from Smithery. Note: multiple MCP Servers can be added here.
  4. Test the new MCP server functionality that’s been added to your Maven agent - Maven is now able to use any of the functions exposed by the MCP Server.

Step-by-Step Example: Integrating Monday.com

Let’s see how this works in practice with an example using Monday.com CRM integration:

Imagine you’re a Maven customer with information in Monday.com that you want available to Maven, along with your support staff who leverage Maven as a copilot. You’d also like your team to tell Maven to take actions against Monday.com CRM, such as updating it with information from chat interactions.

Step 1: Set up your Monday.com board

Start with your existing Monday.com board - in this example, we have a “Customers” board with customer information.

Monday.com Customers board example

Step 2: Find an MCP Server

Search for an MCP Server for Monday.com on smithery.ai.

Searching for MCP Server on Smithery

Step 3: Select a remote MCP Server

Choose one that’s tagged “remote” with high usage, or select another that meets your needs.

Selecting Monday.com MCP Server

Step 4: Generate authenticated URL

Click the “Generate URL” button and prepare to supply credentials to build the authenticated remote URL.

Generate URL dialog in Smithery

Step 5: Get your Monday.com API token

Retrieve your API token from the Monday.com developer center.

Monday.com API token in developer center

Step 6: Create the authenticated URL

Paste your API token into Smithery and generate the connection link. Copy this link to bring over to Maven.

Generated authenticated URL in Smithery

Step 7: Install the MCP app

Search for the MCP app in the Maven App directory and install it.

Step 8: Configure the connection

Supply your copied URL from Smithery during installation. Note that multiple MCP Servers can be added to a single MCP app installation.

Step 9: Test the integration

Test the new MCP server functionality through your agent. Maven is now able to use any of the functions exposed by the MCP Server, allowing you to query and update your Monday.com data directly through conversations.

Action States

Actions can be in one of three states:

  • Pinned: The Action will always be provided to the LLM.
  • Included: The Action will be provided to the the LLM if it is relevant to the user question.
  • Excluded: The Action is disabled and will not be provided to the LLM.

Tuning Actions

When a customer asks a question, Maven will find relevant Actions and provide them to the LLM.

These relevant Actions include all Actions which are Pinned as well as any actions whose description field is similar to the user question. The original description field is provided by the Maven App which created the Action. However, this field can be overridden on the Action Details page if the description does not match your business logic needs.

  • Actions: The Actions page displays all Actions created by the user. Actions can be bulk selected to change their state.

  • Action Details: Clicking on a row in the Actions table opens the Action Details page. This page displays the full Action text and allows editing of the Action description.