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Use ILM with tools

Tools participate in ILM the same way flows and integrations do. Use ILM to move tool changes safely between environments, such as sandbox, staging, and production. Tool definitions, dependencies, and references are promoted automatically, helping you maintain consistency across environments.

When you create a snapshot, pull, or revert, integrator.io automatically includes everything the tool depends on, you don't need to add these separately:

  • Referenced tools and nested tools

  • Lookups, imports, scripts, and lookup caches

  • Connection mappings for the tool and all tools it references

Promote tool changes:

When a tool is modified in a lower environment and included in a pull:

  • Tool changes appear in the pull comparison

  • Referenced tool dependencies are included automatically

  • Existing tool references are preserved

For example, if an AI agent or a flow references to a tool, you do not need to reconnect the tool after promotion.

Flows and agents that reference tools can be included in a snapshot or pull. When promoted:

  • Referenced tools and their nested dependencies are included automatically

  • Tool references remain intact, no rebinding needed after promotion

  • If a tool referenced within a flow belongs to a different integration, ILM creates it in the target integration automatically

Validation before promotion

Before completing a promotion, ILM validates that required tool configuration exists in the target environment.

This includes:

  • Connections

  • Connection mappings

  • Tool dependencies

If required configuration is missing, ILM displays an error and prevents the promotion until the issue is resolved.

Ignore fields during a pull

You can ignore the following tool-related fields during a pull:

Resource

Fields you can ignore

Tool

Name, description

Tool sub-steps

All supported export and import fields

Tool import step

All supported import step fields

Note

Tool input and Tool output fields cannot be ignored during pull operations.

Pull and revert behavior

Scenario

What happens

Pull or revert within the same environment

Always creates a new tool resource

Pull or revert across environments

Updates the existing tool if it was previously promoted; creates it fresh if not

Cloning (any environment)

Always creates a new tool resource