Introducing Apex REST APIs as Agent Actions in Salesforce

At TDX ’25, Salesforce introduced an exciting new Beta feature that lets developers turn their Apex REST APIs into agent actions. This means you can now bring your custom Apex logic right into your AI-powered agents—making them smarter, faster, and more tailored to your business needs.

OpenAPI is a standard format for describing RESTful APIs. It allows developers to define what an API does, what endpoints it has, what data it accepts/returns, and how it behaves — all in a machine-readable way (usually in YAML or JSON format).

Think of OpenAPI as a blueprint or instruction manual that tells people and computers how to use an API without needing to look at the source code.

At this point, it’s important to also look at a clear comparison between YAML and JSON.

YAML is a human-friendly data serialization format often used for configuration files. It emphasizes readability and uses indentation (like Python) to structure data. It’s popular in tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and GitHub Actions.

JSON is a lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for machines to parse and generate. It’s widely used in APIs and web applications to transmit data between servers and clients.

The Apex REST API allows developers to expose custom Apex classes and methods as RESTful web services. This is useful when you want to let external systems interact with your Salesforce org using HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.

First, create an OpenAPI document for your Apex REST API using VS Code or Code Builder. Make sure to check the required prerequisites in the documentation. You can generate the document using Agentforce for Developers. Just open the Apex class in your Salesforce DX project and run the command:

The command generates the files:

Run the following command to check for errors and warnings:

The API and its operations are now exposed as an Apex Reference Action type, which you can use to create a custom Agent Action in your org.

With Apex REST APIs now available as agent actions, Salesforce developers can extend the intelligence and flexibility of AI-powered agents by tapping into existing business logic. This new capability streamlines integration, enhances automation, and allows for more tailored customer interactions—all while staying within the Salesforce ecosystem. As this feature evolves, it promises to unlock even more powerful use cases for Guided Shopping and beyond.