Tools Overview

Tools are the primitive actions agents can execute — HTTP requests, file I/O, memory, shell commands. They are implemented in the tama runtime and always available to any skill.

How tools work

Tools are unlocked through skills. An agent cannot call a tool directly; it must first load a skill that declares the tool:

---
name: my-skill
description: Does something useful.
tools:
  - tama_http_get
  - tama_files_write
---

Instructions for the agent...

When the agent calls read_skill("my-skill"), the listed tools become available for subsequent calls in that agent’s session.

Always-on tools

Two tools are always available — no skill required:

Tool	Description
start	Receive the task input. Every agent calls this first.
finish	Return the result and end the agent loop.

Every other tool must be unlocked via a skill.

Built-in tool namespaces

tama ships with a standard library of built-in tools organized by namespace:

Namespace	Tools	What it does
tama_http	tama_http_get, tama_http_post	HTTP requests
tama_files	tama_files_read, tama_files_write	File I/O
tama_mem	tama_mem_set, tama_mem_get, tama_mem_append	Shared in-memory store
tama_bash	tama_bash	Shell command execution

Tool names in skill files

Always use the full tool name (including namespace prefix) in your skill’s tools: list and in the body instructions:

---
name: search-web
description: Search the web using DuckDuckGo.
tools: [tama_http_get, tama_files_write]
---

Call tama_http_get to fetch search results...