Supercharging Agents with Custom Tools (Google ADK Crash Course - Part 2)

Take your AI agent from "good demo" to "real system" by giving it custom tools and specialist teammates.

In Part 2 of our ADK series, we move beyond built-in tools and show how to connect agents to external APIs and other agents. You'll build practical patterns you can reuse in production-style projects.

If you missed part 1, we have the recording and slides available here.

🎯 WHAT YOU'LL BUILD
In this hands-on workshop, you'll build two upgraded agent systems:

Weather-Aware Planner that calls a live weather API before making trip suggestions

Trip Data Concierge that orchestrates multiple specialist agents using Agent-as-a-Tool

You will implement these key Part 2 patterns:

FunctionTool pattern (Python function as a tool)

AgentTool pattern (one agent calling another agent)

Tool context state sharing (pass data across tool calls in one flow)

💡 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
By the end of this session, you will be able to:

Write clean tool functions with strong docstrings so ADK can use them effectively

Connect an ADK agent to a real-time public API (weather.gov)

Design multi-agent delegation flows with clear responsibilities

Use orchestrator instructions to enforce step-by-step tool usage

Build more reliable, composable agent behavior

🛠️ WHAT YOU'LL NEED
Required (Please Bring):

Laptop with a web browser

Google account (for Colab access)

Access to your Gemini API key from Part 1 setup

Recommended:

Completed Part 1 (Agent, Session, Runner basics)

Basic Python familiarity

No local installation required. We will run the notebook in Google Colab.

📚 WORKSHOP FORMAT
Duration: 90 minutes

Agenda:

0-10 min: Quick recap from Part 1 + Part 2 architecture overview

10-35 min: Build a FunctionTool using a live weather API

35-70 min: Build Agent-as-a-Tool orchestration with specialist agents

70-85 min: Debugging patterns, prompt/tool design tips, and Q&A

85-90 min: Next steps for Part 3 (memory + adaptive planning)

🎓 WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This workshop is for:

Developers who attended Part 1 and want to go deeper

Engineers building practical agent workflows with tool calls

Anyone curious about multi-agent orchestration patterns in ADK

📖 BASED ON
This session continues from the official Google codelab: ADK Crash Course - From Beginner To Expert by Qingyue (Annie) Wang.

Notebook segment covered: Part 2: Supercharging Agents with Custom Tools

💬 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
Discord: https://discord.gg/8MAHjHj

Ask setup or debugging questions

Share your Part 2 agent implementations

Stay updated on future ADK sessions

📧 Questions? Email us at gdgchapelhill@gmail.com or just place a comment here on this event page, and we'll get back to you!

⚠️ DISCLAIMER
GDG Chapel Hill is an independent group; our activities and the opinions expressed here should in no way be linked to Google, the corporation. To learn more about the GDG program, visit https://developers.google.com/community/gdg/.

✅ READY TO CONTINUE?
Bring your laptop and let's supercharge your agents with real tools.

Agenda

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Speakers

Tobenna Okunna - FloatMe (Senior Software Engineer)

Hi all, my name is Tobenna Okunna. I build apps, primarily aimed at addressing material needs and improving outcomes for under-served communities. Im looking forward to collaborating and learning with the engineering community. A little bit about me:

• Originally from Nigeria
• Graduated w/ a CS degree from the University of San Diego in 2020
• Lead teams at multiple startup
• …

Aan Patel

Please visit https://aanpatel.tech; for a complete bio

Hosted By

Aan Patel, GDG Organizer

Hi! 👋

I'm a full-stack software developer. In my free time, I enjoy playing with new technologies, building prototypes, and connecting with others on platforms such as this one to grow my skills and share knowledge.

Thanks for stopping by. Visit https://aanpatel.tech to learn more about me or to get in touch!

Tobenna Okunna, Organizer

Hi all, my name is Tobenna Okunna. I build apps, primarily aimed at addressing material needs and improving outcomes for under-served communities.

Im looking forward to collaborating and learning with the engineering community.

A little bit about me:

• Originally from Nigeria
• Graduated w/ a CS degree from the University of San Diego in 2020
• Lead teams at multiple startup
• I have tons of side projects
• Played D1 football
• I'm an avid weightlifter

Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-chapel-hill-presents-supercharging-agents-with-custom-tools-google-adk-crash-course-part-2/.