Tool Use & Function Calling
Hook your agent up to the real world with JSON schemas and MCP. Part of the free AI Agents Academy — every lesson below is open to everyone, no signup required.
// LESSONS IN THIS MODULE
- 01Defining & Executing Tools10 min · 70 XP
Passing Tools to Models To let an LLM use a tool, you define its signature using a JSON Schema. The LLM doesn't execute the code-it asks you to execut...
- 02MCP: The Universal Tool Layer12 min · 80 XP
Model Context Protocol (MCP) MCP is the open standard for connecting AI to data sources and tools. Think of it as USB-C for AI. Instead of writing cus...
- 03MCP Spec 2026-07-28: Tasks, Apps & Skills10 min · 90 XP
MCP's Newest Extensions MCP is a living standard, and its specification is dated by revision. The current revision - 2026-07-28 - is published at mode...
- 04Computer Use & Browser Control10 min · 80 XP
Desktop Automation Modern frontier models (like Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Gemini 2.0) have native Computer Use capabilities. They can observe screenshots...
- 05Tool Design Best Practices10 min · 80 XP
Designing Tools That Agents Actually Use Correctly The tools you give your agent are just as important as the prompt. Poorly designed tools lead to ha...
- 06Error Handling & Recovery10 min · 80 XP
Making Agents Resilient In production, things break constantly. APIs time out, databases go down, and rate limits are hit. A solid agent must handle t...