Agents
Tool Contract
A tool contract is the schema a tool exposes to a model.
It lists parameter names, types, required fields, and any enums or patterns that constrain them.
A loose contract lets a model fill an ambiguous field with a plausible-looking guess.
A tight contract, validated server-side, stops a hallucinated argument from reaching execution.
It is the one piece of documentation a model reads before every call.
← Back to the full glossaryRelated terms
Tool Calling Tool calling lets a model request a structured action instead of only generating text. Model Context Protocol (MCP) MCP is an open standard for connecting LLM applications to tools and data sources. Structured Output Structured output constrains a model's response to a defined schema instead of free-form prose. Idempotency An idempotent operation produces the same result no matter how many times it runs.
More in Agents
Agent (Agentic AI) An agent is an LLM given a loop, memory, and tools it can call. Context Engineering Context engineering decides what occupies a model's context window at every step, and in what order. Guardrails Guardrails are the checks that keep an LLM or agent inside acceptable bounds in production. Golden Path A golden path is the single sanctioned way to do a common piece of work.