---
title: Action Gateway Concepts (public)
description: Explanations of Action Gateway tools, sessions, actors, connections, and toolbelts.
product: Managed Agents
url: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/
last_updated: "2026-09-21"
---

> **For AI agents:** The documentation index is at [https://docs.digitalocean.com/llms.txt](https://docs.digitalocean.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of pages use the same URL with `index.html.md` in place of the HTML page (for example, append `index.html.md` to the directory path instead of opening the HTML document).

# Action Gateway Concepts (public)

Generated on 13 Oct 2026

Action Gateway gives applications and AI agents governed access to tens of thousands of tools through a managed MCP endpoint or SDK. See [What You Can Build](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/agent-harness-runtime/details/what-you-can-build/index.html.md) for example use cases of Action Gateway with Harness Runtime.

[Action Gateway Overview](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/overview/index.html.md): Action Gateway gives agents catalog tools through a managed MCP endpoint using action_search, action_invoke, and action_code, with on-demand discovery, preloading, and output views to control model context.

[Sessions](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/sessions/index.html.md): An Action Gateway session gives you an MCP endpoint URL with the tools and permissions you choose for your client.

[Actors](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/actors/index.html.md): An Action Gateway actor is a user-defined identity that links a user’s provider accounts to the sessions that use them.

[Connections](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/connections/index.html.md): Action Gateway connections authorize provider accounts for an actor, belong to the creating DigitalOcean user, and keep credentials out of model context.

[Toolbelts](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/toolbelts/index.html.md): Action Gateway Toolbelts group tools into versioned collections for session selection, group permissions, and preloading.

[Tool Policies](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/tool-policies/index.html.md): Action Gateway tool policies allow, require approval for, or deny calls within a session’s selected catalog.

[Preloading Tools](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/preloading-tools/index.html.md): Action Gateway preloading exposes known tools directly to the model while tool search discovers other relevant tools as needed.

[Tool Search](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/tool-search/index.html.md): Action Gateway tool search discovers relevant catalog tools and their schemas without loading the entire catalog into an agent’s context.

[Invoke Tool](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/invoke-tool/index.html.md): Action Gateway invokes named catalog tools with validated arguments and returns an outcome for each call.

[Code Execution Tool](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/code-execution-tool/index.html.md): Action Gateway runs an agent’s Python code in an ephemeral sandbox, with optional programmatic tool calling for advanced workflows.

[Reliable Execution](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/managed-agents/action-gateway/concepts/reliable-execution/index.html.md): Action Gateway uses bounded, tool-specific retries and provider idempotency where supported, without guaranteeing that arbitrary repeated calls are safe.