Tool
A specific, callable function wired into an agent's runtime that its underlying model can invoke to have an effect outside the conversation (for example, send_email(), submit_purchase_order(), delete_record()). Tools, not instructions, are the technical basis of what an agent can actually do. This includes implicit capabilities the runtime environment grants without a named function wrapping it, such as raw shell access or unrestricted filesystem reach, which count in an enumeration exactly like any registered function does.
Defined in 2 GAGE programs, which carry 2 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in Agentic AI Governance: Applied Mastery.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
A specific, callable function wired into an agent's runtime that its underlying model can invoke to have an effect outside the conversation (for example, send_email(), submit_purchase_order(), delete_record()). Tools, not instructions, are the technical basis of what an agent can actually do. This includes implicit capabilities the runtime environment grants without a named function wrapping it, such as raw shell access or unrestricted filesystem reach, which count in an enumeration exactly like any registered function does.
A specific capability granted to an agent that lets it take an action or gather information (send an email, move money, run a command, read a record, browse a website, call another system). An agent can only do what its tools allow, so the tool set is the outer edge of everything the agent could ever do.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- Action-Space · Capability and Autonomy, Agentic AI Governance: Applied Mastery
- Permissioning an agent: tools, budgets, and the actions it may never take alone · Agents Under Command, AI Governance: Applied Mastery
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.