Mastering Tool Usage in AI Agents: Patterns, APIs, and Best Practices
A deep dive into how AI agents use tools, how to design reliable tool APIs, and how to integrate them into agent reasoning loops.
/Mick Mudge
#AI Agents#Tools#LLMs#APIs#Autonomous Systems
Mastering Tool Usage in AI Agents: Patterns, APIs, and Best Practices
Tool-usage is what transforms an LLM from a text generator into an action-taking agent. Tools extend the agent’s capabilities beyond reasoning into real-world impact.
What Are Tools?
Tools are external functions the agent can call:
- APIs
- Database operations
- File system tasks
- Third-party integrations
- Internal business logic
A tool exposes well-defined parameters and behaviors.
Basic Tool Type
interface Tool {
name: string;
description: string;
parameters: Record<string, any>;
execute: (params: any) => Promise<any>;
}