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tool-design

Design clear tool APIs and error messages for AI agents.

Updated Feb 26, 2026
Search Tags:#prompt engineering#api design#tool design#agent tools#consolidation principle#architectural reduction
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/CxxxxDxxxF/project-blackout --skill tool-design-cxxxxdxxxf
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: tool-design
Source: https://github.com/CxxxxDxxxF/project-blackout/tree/main/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/skills/tool-design
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/CxxxxDxxxF/project-blackout --skill tool-design-cxxxxdxxxf

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes scripts (resource) and references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve?

This Skill addresses the challenge of creating and optimizing tools for AI agents, ensuring they are understandable, usable, and lead to successful task completion.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Tool API Design: Guides the creation of clear, unambiguous tool interfaces for language models.
  • Consolidation & Reduction: Promotes simplifying tool sets by consolidating functionality and favoring primitive, general-purpose tools.
  • Use Case: An engineer needs to build a new tool for an agent to interact with a weather API. This Skill provides principles for defining the tool's name, parameters, expected returns, and error handling to ensure the agent can use it effectively.

Quick Start

Use the tool-design skill to create a new tool description for an agent that needs to search a database.

Frequently Asked Questions about tool-design

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
What is tool design for AI agents and why is it important?▼

To design agent tools, you create clear APIs, write effective descriptions, optimize response formats, and design error messages for agent recovery. This process ensures language models can unambiguously understand parameters and expected returns for successful task execution.

How do I consolidate agent tools to reduce architectural complexity?▼

Yes, this tool design guidance applies to building tools for any external API, such as a weather service or database search. It provides principles for defining tool names, parameters, expected returns, and error handling to ensure seamless agent interaction.

How should error messages be designed for agent tool recovery?▼

Yes, this tool design guidance applies to building tools for any external API, such as a weather service or database search. It provides principles for defining tool names, parameters, expected returns, and error handling to ensure seamless agent interaction.

What is the consolidation principle in agent tool design?▼

Yes, this tool design guidance applies to building tools for any external API, such as a weather service or database search. It provides principles for defining tool names, parameters, expected returns, and error handling to ensure seamless agent interaction.

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