Creating Agentforce Custom Actions with Heroku

This tutorial will guide you through configuring an Agentforce Action deployed to Heroku within your Salesforce org. This allows Agentforce agents to access powerful custom-coded actions written in Python and other languages, leveraging Heroku's fully managed and elastic compute service. By the end, you will be able to generate your own badge as shown below!

Step 1 - Deploy to Heroku

This tutorial provides examples in Java and Python for coding a basic Agentforce action. Complete the standard Heroku deployment instructions in one of the following repositories before progressing to the next step.

Language	GitHub Repository
Python	GitHub Repository
Java	GitHub Repository

Step 2 - Publishing your Heroku App into a Salesforce org

💡 Heroku AppLink:
These steps utilize generally availble features in Heroku and Salesforce. If you had joined the Heroku Integration pilot program please refer to these alternative instructions.

💡 Salesforce Org Requirements:
Ensure you have access to Agentforce in your org by searching for Agents in the Setup menu. If not, you can obtain a free Salesforce Developer Edition org here. Be sure to visit Einstein Setup to enable Einstein, the fresh the page and search for Agentforce Agents to enable Agentforce. Finally on the same page click Enable the Agentforce (Default) Agent.

From the directory you completed the above deployment in, run the following commands.

💡 Salesforce Org Requirements: Ensure you have access to Agentforce in your org by searching for Agents in the Setup menu. If not, you can create a temporary org by logging into Trailhead and creating a Playground per the instructions at the top of this module (you do not need to complete the module). Once you have access to the org, locate Einstein Setup under the Setup menu and Enable Einstein, which will also enable Agentforce.

Add Heroku AppLink to your application.

heroku addons:create heroku-applink

Configure the application ID as follows:

heroku config:set HEROKU_APP_ID="$(heroku apps:info --json | jq -r '.app.id')"

💡 jq utility:
If you do not have the jq utlity, run heroku apps:info --json manually and extract the value from the app json structure output to the console.

Connect your Heroku application to the org you intend to configure Agentforce within.

heroku salesforce:connect my-org

Add Heroku AppLink Service Mesh buildpack to ensure incoming calls from the Salesforce org are authenticated correctly.

$ heroku buildpacks:add https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-heroku-applink-service-mesh

Import your applications and its API specification into the connected org, for Python use api-spec.json.

heroku salesforce:publish api-spec.yaml --client-name BadgeService --connection-name my-org --authorization-connected-app-name BadgeServiceConnectedApp --authorization-permission-set-name BadgeServicePermissions

Lastly trigger a redeploy of the application to ensure the service mesh is running using the following commands.

git commit --allow-empty -m "empty commit"
git push heroku main

Once complete check your application has been imported by searching for Heroku and then Apps under the Setup menu in your org.

Step 3 - Assigning Permissions

The above process created BadgeService and BadgeServicePermissions permission sets to control access to your application from within the org. Search for Permisison Sets under Setup, locate these permission sets and click Manage Assignments to assign to your user.

Step 4 - Creating an Agentforce Action

1. Search for Agent Assets under the Setup menu, and on the Actions tab, click New Agent Action, selecting API as the Reference Action Type. Then select Heroku from the Reference Action Category. In the Reference Action search field, search for Generate Badge. Your dialog should look like the following:

   

2. Complete defining the action as follows and click Finish.

   

Step 5 - Using Agent Builder

| Field | Text |
| ----- | ---- |
| `Agent Action Instructions` | Use this action in response to requests for a Heroku badge with a name on it. |
| `AgentActionRequestName Instructions` | Name to be placed on the badge. |
| `AgentActionResponseMessage Instructions` | This is the Heroku badge the user requested. |

---

1. Search for Agentforce Agents under Setup.

2. Click the Agentforce (Default) link at the bottom of the page to find the Open in Agent Builder button.

3. Click the Deactivate button in the top right of the screen if present.

4. Click Topics and the General CRM topic. If the New Version button is shown, click it.

5. Click the Topic Configuration tab and append "Also including requests for badges." to the current contents of the Classification Description field. Click Save.

6. Click the This Topic's Actions tab and select Add from Asset Library from the New button dropdown.

7. Complete the dialog as shown and click Finish.

   

8. Finally, click the Activate button in the top right of the screen.

Step 6 - Testing your Action

1. Open the Agent Builder for Einstein Copilot.

2. In the Conversation Preview, enter Generate a badge for Astro

   You can, of course, change the name to your own and share your badge with your friends!

   

Summary

Congratulations on deploying your first Heroku-powered Agentforce Action!

We are working to improve and simplify this process, so please follow this repository to stay informed on updates.

Need some inspiration on what to build?

The examples in this tutorial are intentionally simple, designed to give you a clear starting point for creating your own actions. We have also included fully developed actions below.

Example	Demo Video		Related Content
The Archive Agent action demonstrates using Heroku to access and perform complex computations over unstructured archived data. It uses AI to interpret natural language requests from users to perform a wider array of dynamic calculations on the data.	Link		Blog Code
With the Coral Cloud Collage Agent, we explore how Coral Cloud Resort invites its guests to browse and book unique experiences throughout their stay using Agentforce. With Heroku, we extend the agent's functionality to generate a personalized collage of each guest's adventures, showcasing how custom code deployed on Heroku can create dynamic digital media delivered directly within the Agentforce experience.	Link		Code