Getting Started with Syncfusion Document SDK AI Agent Tool Library

25 May 202613 minutes to read

The Syncfusion Document SDK AI Agent Tool library exposes Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, and Smart Data Extractor operations as AI-callable tools. It integrates with the Microsoft Agent Framework and works with any providers like OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, etc.

Document Manager Modes

The library supports two modes for managing document state during agent tool invocations. Both modes expose the same AI tools-the difference is in how and where documents are stored between tool calls.

Refer to the table below to choose the appropriate mode for your application and follow the corresponding guide.

Use Cases	Execution Mode
Desktop applications Console applications Single-instance (non-scalable)	In-Memory
Web APIs Scalable applications Stateless services	Storage

In-Memory Mode

Documents are held as live objects in an in-memory dictionary. Each tool accesses and modifies the object directly without opening or saving files on each call. Unused documents are cleaned up automatically after a configurable timeout (default: 10 minutes).

The example below uses the Microsoft Agents Framework with OpenAI. The same steps apply to any provider that implements IChatClient.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
.NET SDK	.NET 8.0, 9.0, or 10.0
AI Provider API Key	Required to authenticate requests to the AI provider. This page uses OpenAI.
NuGet Package	Microsoft.Agents.AI.OpenAI

Integration

Step 1: Install and License

Install the Syncfusion.DocumentSDK.AI.AgentTools NuGet package, then register your license key at application startup:

string? licenseKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SYNCFUSION_LICENSE_KEY");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(licenseKey))
    Syncfusion.Licensing.SyncfusionLicenseProvider.RegisterLicense(licenseKey);

Step 2: Create Managers and Collection

Create one document manager per document type. The timeout controls how long an unused document stays in memory. Register all managers in a DocumentManagerCollection so cross-format tools (such as OfficeToPdfAgentTools) can resolve the correct manager at runtime:

using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Core;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Word;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Excel;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.PDF;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.PowerPoint;

var timeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5);
var wordManager         = new WordDocumentManager(timeout);
var excelManager        = new ExcelWorkbookManager(timeout);
var pdfManager          = new PdfDocumentManager(timeout);
var presentationManager = new PresentationManager(timeout);

var repoCollection = new DocumentManagerCollection();
repoCollection.AddManager(DocumentType.Word,       wordManager);
repoCollection.AddManager(DocumentType.Excel,      excelManager);
repoCollection.AddManager(DocumentType.PDF,        pdfManager);
repoCollection.AddManager(DocumentType.PowerPoint, presentationManager);

NOTE

Tools that operate on a single document type are initialized directly with their own manager. Only cross-format tools like OfficeToPdfAgentTools require the DocumentManagerCollection.

Step 3: Instantiate Tools

Initialize each tool class with its manager and call GetTools() to collect AITool objects:

using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.DataExtraction;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.OfficeToPDF;
using AITool = Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Core.AITool;

string outputDir = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OUTPUT_DIR") ?? @"D:\Output";
Directory.CreateDirectory(outputDir);

var allTools = new List<AITool>();

// Word tools
allTools.AddRange(new WordDocumentAgentTools(wordManager, outputDir).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new WordOperationsAgentTools(wordManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new WordSecurityAgentTools(wordManager).GetTools());

// Excel tools
allTools.AddRange(new ExcelWorkbookAgentTools(excelManager, outputDir).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new ExcelWorksheetAgentTools(excelManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new ExcelSecurityAgentTools(excelManager).GetTools());

// PDF tools
allTools.AddRange(new PdfDocumentAgentTools(pdfManager, outputDir).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PdfOperationsAgentTools(pdfManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PdfSecurityAgentTools(pdfManager).GetTools());

// PowerPoint tools
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationDocumentAgentTools(presentationManager, outputDir).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationOperationsAgentTools(presentationManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationSecurityAgentTools(presentationManager).GetTools());

// Conversion and data extraction
allTools.AddRange(new OfficeToPdfAgentTools(repoCollection, outputDir).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new DataExtractionAgentTools(outputDir).GetTools());

NOTE

Register only the tool classes your app needs. See the full list in the Tools Reference.

Step 4: Convert and Register Tools

Wrap each AITool into a framework-compatible function using AIFunctionFactory.Create:

using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

var aiTools = allTools
    .Select(t => AIFunctionFactory.Create(
        t.Method,
        t.Instance,
        new AIFunctionFactoryOptions { Name = t.Name, Description = t.Description }))
    .Cast<Microsoft.Extensions.AI.AITool>()
    .ToList();

NOTE

AI agents support a maximum of 128 tools. Register only the tools relevant to your scenario.

Step 5: Build the Agent

Create the agent with the chat client, system prompt, and registered tools:

using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using OpenAI;

string apiKey    = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OPENAI_API_KEY")!;
string model     = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OPENAI_MODEL") ?? "gpt-4o";
string inputDir  = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("INPUT_DIR")  ?? @"D:\Input";
string outputDir = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OUTPUT_DIR") ?? @"D:\Output";

AIAgent agent = new OpenAIClient(apiKey)
    .GetChatClient(model)
    .AsIChatClient()
    .AsAIAgent(
        instructions: BuildSystemPrompt(inputDir, outputDir),
        tools: aiTools);

The system prompt sets the rules for how the agent works. For the full system prompt, see here.

Complete Example

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

Storage Mode

Documents are read from and written to storage (Azure Blob, S3, local disk, etc.) on each tool invocation. No in-memory objects are maintained between tool calls - each operation opens the document from storage, processes it, and saves it back. This mode is ideal for distributed systems, serverless architectures, and scenarios where document persistence is required.

The example below uses Azure Blob Storage. The same pattern works with any storage back end by implementing the IDocumentStorage interface.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
.NET SDK	.NET 8.0, 9.0, or 10.0
AI Provider API Key	Required to authenticate requests to the AI provider. This page uses OpenAI.
Azure Storage Account	Create from Azure Portal with a blob container
NuGet Packages	Microsoft.Agents.AI.OpenAI, Azure.Storage.Blobs

Integration

Step 1: Install and License

Install the Syncfusion.DocumentSDK.AI.AgentTools NuGet package, then register your license key at application startup:

string? licenseKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SYNCFUSION_LICENSE_KEY");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(licenseKey))
    Syncfusion.Licensing.SyncfusionLicenseProvider.RegisterLicense(licenseKey);

Step 2: Implement Storage

Implement IDocumentStorage for your storage back end. Below is the class signature and method placeholders for Azure Blob Storage - You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using Azure.Storage.Blobs.Models;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Core;

public class AzureBlobStorage : IDocumentStorage
{
    private readonly BlobContainerClient _containerClient;

    public AzureBlobStorage(string connectionString, string containerName)
    {
        _containerClient = new BlobContainerClient(connectionString, containerName);
        _containerClient.CreateIfNotExists(PublicAccessType.None);
    }

    public Stream Read(string filePath) { /* download blob to MemoryStream */ }

    public bool Write(string filePath, Stream documentStream) { /* upload stream to blob */ }

    public bool Exists(string filePath) { /* check if blob exists */ }
}

Then initialize it with your connection string and container:

string connectionString = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_BLOB_CONNECTION_STRING")!;
string containerName    = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_BLOB_CONTAINER") ?? "documents";

IDocumentStorage storage = new AzureBlobStorage(connectionString, containerName);

NOTE

For other storage providers (AWS S3, local disk, etc.), implement the same IDocumentStorage interface with the appropriate SDK or file system operations.

Step 3: Create DocumentStorageManager

Unlike In-Memory Mode which uses separate managers per document type, Storage Mode uses a single DocumentStorageManager for all document types:

using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.DocumentManagers;

var storageManager = new DocumentStorageManager(storage);

Step 4: Instantiate Tools

Initialize each tool class with the storage manager and collect AITool objects:

using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Word;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Excel;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.PDF;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.PowerPoint;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.OfficeToPDF;
using Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.DataExtraction;
using AITool = Syncfusion.AI.AgentTools.Core.AITool;

var allTools = new List<AITool>();

// Word tools
allTools.AddRange(new WordImportExportAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new WordOperationsAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new WordSecurityAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());

// Excel tools
allTools.AddRange(new ExcelWorksheetAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new ExcelSecurityAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new ExcelDataValidationAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());

// PDF tools
allTools.AddRange(new PdfOperationsAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PdfSecurityAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PdfContentExtractionAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());

// PowerPoint tools
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationOperationsAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationSecurityAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationContentAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new PresentationFindAndReplaceAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());

// Conversion and data extraction
allTools.AddRange(new OfficeToPdfAgentTools(storageManager).GetTools());
allTools.AddRange(new DataExtractionAgentTools().GetTools());

NOTE

1. The following tool classes are not supported in Storage mode:
   • WordDocumentAgentTools
   • ExcelWorkbookAgentTools
   • PdfDocumentAgentTools
   • PresentationDocumentAgentTools
2. All other tool classes work identically in both modes.
3. Register only the tool classes your app needs. See the full list in the Tools Reference.

Step 5: Convert and Register Tools

Wrap each AITool into a framework-compatible function using AIFunctionFactory.Create:

using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

var aiTools = allTools
    .Select(t => AIFunctionFactory.Create(
        t.Method,
        t.Instance,
        new AIFunctionFactoryOptions { Name = t.Name, Description = t.Description }))
    .Cast<Microsoft.Extensions.AI.AITool>()
    .ToList();

NOTE

AI agents support a maximum of 128 tools. Register only the tools relevant to your scenario.

Step 6: Build the Agent

Create the agent with the chat client, system prompt, and registered tools:

using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using OpenAI;

string apiKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OPENAI_API_KEY")!;
string model  = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("OPENAI_MODEL") ?? "gpt-4o";

AIAgent agent = new OpenAIClient(apiKey)
    .GetChatClient(model)
    .AsIChatClient()
    .AsAIAgent(
        instructions: BuildSystemPrompt(@"Input\", @"Output\"),
        tools: aiTools);

The system prompt sets the rules for how the agent works. For the full system prompt, see here.

Complete Example

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

See Also

• Overview
• Tools Reference
• Customization
• Example Prompts
• Example Use Cases