What is a tool contract for an artificial intelligence agent?
Definition
A tool contract describes how an agent may call a capability and what the capability promises to return. Request and response schemas reduce ambiguous arguments, while explicit error states let the workflow decide whether to retry, recover or ask for help.
For tools that change external systems, the contract should also document authorization, idempotency and compensation behavior. A clear contract makes the boundary independently testable and prevents the model from inventing unsupported parameters or assumptions.
Acronyms and aliases
agent tool contract variant
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What should a tool contract define?
It should define request and response schemas, validation rules, errors, authorization requirements and possible side effects.
Why do agents need strict tool schemas?
Schemas turn model-generated arguments into bounded, testable inputs and reject malformed or unsupported calls before execution.
