Module 7: Tools & APIs•Lesson 1 of 5
What Tools Actually Are
4 minVideo coming soon
What Tools Actually Are
Tools let your agent affect the real world.
The Limitation of Pure LLMs
Without tools, an LLM can only:
- Generate text
- Answer questions
- Have conversations
It cannot:
- Read files
- Browse the web
- Execute code
- Send messages
- Control anything
Tools Bridge the Gap
Tools are functions the agent can call:
Agent thinks: "I need to check the weather"
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Agent calls: weather_tool("San Francisco")
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Tool executes: HTTP request to weather API
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Tool returns: "72°F, sunny"
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Agent responds: "It's 72°F and sunny in San Francisco"Tool Categories
Information Tools
- web_search — Search the internet
- web_fetch — Read a webpage
- read — Read local files
- memory_search — Search memory
Action Tools
- write — Create/modify files
- exec — Run shell commands
- message — Send messages
- browser — Control a browser
System Tools
- cron — Schedule tasks
- sessions_spawn — Create sub-agents
- gateway — Manage the system
How the Agent Decides
The agent sees tool descriptions and decides:
Available tools:
- web_search: Search the web for information
- read: Read contents of a file
- exec: Execute a shell command
User: "What's the weather in Tokyo?"
Agent thinks: "This needs current data from the web"
Agent action: web_search("Tokyo weather")The agent matches the task to the right tool.
The Agent Loop
1. Receive input
2. Think about what to do
3. Decide: Respond directly OR use a tool
4. If tool: Execute, get result, continue thinking
5. Generate final responseTools extend what's possible. Without them, agents are just chatbots.