Building Custom Tools
Master tool design, implementation, testing, and deployment for production AI agents
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0 / 5 completedDesigning Effective Tool Interfaces
Good tool design is like good API design: clear, predictable, and hard to misuse. Before writing a single line of code, you must define how agents will interact with your tool.
Interactive: Design Process
Step through the tool design process
Define Purpose
What problem does this tool solve?
Example:
Fetch customer purchase history from internal database
Key Considerations:
•Clear, specific objective
•Single responsibility
•Well-defined scope
Design Principles
📝
Descriptive Names
Use
get_user_by_email not fetch🎯
Single Responsibility
Each tool does ONE thing well, not multiple things poorly
🔒
Type Safety
Strongly typed parameters with validation prevent runtime errors
📋
Clear Documentation
Description tells agents WHEN and HOW to use the tool
Good vs Bad Design
send_email
✓ Good Design
Send email to specified recipient
{
"to": "string",
"subject": "string",
"body": "string"
}
✗ Bad Design
Send message
{
"data": "object"
}
get_weather
✓ Good Design
Get current weather for a city
{
"city": "string",
"units": "celsius | fahrenheit (optional)"
}
✗ Bad Design
Weather
{
"input": "any"
}