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What is Tool Use?

Tool use is an LLM’s ability to call external functions (web search, code execution, APIs, file operations) and incorporate the results into its response. osFoundry’s tool catalog includes 14+ built-in tools plus custom tools via the plugin system or MCP servers.

Detail

Modern LLMs are trained to emit structured tool-call requests when they decide a task needs external action. The orchestrator receives the call, executes the tool, returns the result, and the model continues. Common tools: web search, code execution (Python, JS), HTTP fetch, file read/write, database query, calendar.

Good tool-use is hard — the LLM has to pick the right tool, format arguments correctly, parse results, and decide when to stop calling. Quality varies a lot by model.

How osFoundry approaches Tool Use

osFoundry’s tool catalog has 14+ built-in tools. Per-agent tool scope restricts which tools each agent can call. MCP servers add third-party tools to the workspace.