Home / jnpiyush / agentx · .github/skills/ai-systems/tool-use-and-function-calling/SKILL.md · GitHub

tool-use-and-function-calling skillA

tool-use-and-function-calling is agent-read markdown (skill) from jnpiyush/agentx: Design robust tool-use and function-calling for LLM agents. Use when defining tool schemas (JSON Schema, OpenAPI), enabling parallel tool calls, structured outputs (JSON mode / response_format), tool error handling, retries, idempotency, and tool selection prompts. Covers OpenAI tools, Anthropic tool_use, Gemini function calling, and MCP tools..

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What the file says

# Tool Use and Function Calling

> **Purpose**: Build LLM agents that call tools reliably with correct arguments, handle failures gracefully, and produce structured results.

---

## When to Use This Skill

- Designing tools / functions an agent will call
- Defining JSON schemas for tool arguments and structured outputs
- Enabling and tuning parallel tool calls
- Designing tool error contracts and retries
- Building MCP tools (see also `mcp-server-development`)

---

## Tool Design Principles

| Principle | Rule |
|-----------|------|
| Single responsibility | One tool = one verb-phrase action |
| Strict typing | JSON Schema with `required`, types, `enum`, `pattern` |
| Idempotent where possible | Safe to retry on transient failure |
| Stateless arguments | All inputs in args -- no hidden context |
| Bounded outputs | Cap response size; truncate large lists with pagination tokens |
| Errors as data | Return `{ ok: false, error: { code, message, retryable } }`, do not throw |

---

## Schema Quality Checklist

- [ ] `description` on every tool and every parameter
- [ ] `required` array lists ONLY truly required params
- [ ] Use `enum` for fixed value sets (not free-form strings)
…

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Versions

versioncommittedcommitsizeaudit
v1.0.0 latest2026-09-15 f17c505 5,528 BA view · diff
v1.0.02026-06-23 bab3a1b 5,526 BA view · diff
v1.0.02026-04-30 4f38ce8 5,531 BA view

Audit of the latest version

A  17 of 17 checks passed. Deterministic, no model, same answer every run.
  • pass: Frontmatter block present
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a name
  • pass: Frontmatter declares a description
  • pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (5528 bytes)
  • pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
  • pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
  • pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
  • pass: No credential-shaped string
  • pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
  • pass: No text hidden with inline styles
  • pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
  • pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
  • pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
  • pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
  • pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
  • pass: No link to a raw IP address
  • pass: No script tag

Source

GitHub

jnpiyush/agentx · 16 stars · license Apache-2.0 · pushed 2026-09-21 · branch master

API

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GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=jnpiyush/agentx/tool-use-and-function-calling
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/eae651b6a809a57b7f62a6a0a51f5c456442f47f4ab5ec413bf92b43df68d6d2

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