Tools & Toolsets

Tools are the atomic actions EdgeCrab can perform. They are organized into toolsets (named groups) and activated via aliases in config or CLI.

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Enabling and Disabling Tools

Via CLI

edgecrab --toolset coding "implement the feature"
edgecrab --toolset file,terminal "run tests"
edgecrab --toolset all "maximum capability"
edgecrab --toolset minimal "safe mode"

Via config

tools:
  enabled_toolsets:              # only these toolsets active (null = all)
    - coding
    - memory
  disabled_toolsets:             # remove from enabled set
    - browser

Custom Groups

Define your own toolset alias in config:

tools:
  custom_groups:
    my-research:
      - web_search
      - web_extract
      - read_file

Then use --toolset my-research on the CLI.

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Built-in Toolset Aliases

Alias	Expands to
core	file + meta + scheduling + delegation + code_execution + session + mcp + browser
coding	file + terminal + search (search_files) + code_execution
research	web + browser + vision
debugging	terminal + web + file
safe	web + vision + image_gen + moa
minimal	file + terminal
data_gen	file + terminal + web + code_execution
all	every tool (no filtering)

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Toolset Reference

file — File Manipulation

Tool	Description
read_file	Read file contents with optional start_line/end_line range
write_file	Write or overwrite a file (creates parent dirs automatically)
patch	Apply a unified diff patch to a file
search_files	Regex or glob search across a directory tree

terminal — Process Management

Tool	Description
terminal	Run a shell command, return stdout/stderr and exit code
run_process	Start a background process, returns a process ID
list_processes	List all background processes started this session
kill_process	Send SIGTERM/SIGKILL to a background process
get_process_output	Read stdout/stderr from a running background process
wait_for_process	Block until a background process exits
write_stdin	Send bytes to a process’s stdin

web — Web Access

Tool	Description
web_search	Search DuckDuckGo, returns structured results
web_extract	Fetch a URL and extract readable text (readability algorithm)
web_crawl	Recursively crawl a site up to a specified depth

browser — Browser Automation

Tool	Description
browser_navigate	Navigate to a URL in a CDP-connected Chrome instance
browser_snapshot	Get page accessibility tree as structured text
browser_screenshot	Take a full-page or viewport screenshot
browser_click	Click an element by CSS selector or text
browser_type	Type text into a focused input
browser_scroll	Scroll the page in any direction
browser_console	Return buffered console.log/warn/error messages
browser_back	Navigate back in browser history
browser_press	Press a keyboard key (Enter, Tab, Escape, etc.)
browser_close	Close the browser and release CDP connection
browser_get_images	Return base64-encoded images currently visible
browser_vision	Screenshot + analyze with vision model

memory — Persistent Memory

Tool	Description
memory_read	Read a memory file from ~/.edgecrab/memories/
memory_write	Write or update a memory file
honcho_conclude	Commit a Honcho memory entry at end of session
honcho_search	Semantic search across Honcho user model
honcho_list	List Honcho memory entries
honcho_remove	Remove a specific Honcho entry
honcho_profile	Update the Honcho user profile summary
honcho_context	Retrieve relevant Honcho context for current task

skills — Skills Management

Tool	Description
skills_list	List all installed skills
skills_categories	List skill categories
skill_view	Read a skill’s SKILL.md content
skill_manage	Install/uninstall/update skills
skills_hub	Search and browse the public skills hub

meta — Planning & Interaction

Tool	Description
manage_todo_list	Create and manage a todo list for the current task
clarify	Ask the user a clarifying question before proceeding

scheduling — Cron Jobs

Tool	Description
manage_cron_jobs	Create, list, enable, disable, and delete cron jobs

delegation — Subagents

Tool	Description
delegate_task	Spawn a subagent to complete a parallel subtask
mixture_of_agents	Run a task through multiple models, synthesize consensus

code_execution — Sandboxed Execution

Tool	Description
execute_code	Execute Python, Node.js, or Bash code in an isolated sandbox

session — History Search

Tool	Description
session_search	Full-text FTS5 search across all past session messages

mcp — MCP Server Integration

Tool	Description
mcp_list_tools	List all tools exposed by connected MCP servers
mcp_call_tool	Call a named tool on an MCP server
mcp_list_resources	List resources from MCP servers
mcp_read_resource	Read a resource from an MCP server
mcp_list_prompts	List prompts from MCP servers
mcp_get_prompt	Retrieve and expand an MCP prompt

media — Vision, TTS, STT

Tool	Description
text_to_speech	Convert text to audio (edge-tts, OpenAI, ElevenLabs)
vision_analyze	Analyze an image file with the configured vision model
transcribe_audio	Transcribe audio with Whisper (local) or Groq/OpenAI
generate_image	Generate an image via DALL-E or compatible API

core — Checkpoints

Tool	Description
checkpoint	Create/list/restore/diff filesystem checkpoints

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Runtime-Gated Tools

Some tools are always present in the toolset but silently unavailable if their runtime dependency is missing:

Tool	Gated by
browser_*	Chrome/Chromium binary or CDP_URL env var
text_to_speech	edge-tts binary, OpenAI key, or ElevenLabs key
transcribe_audio	whisper-rs or Groq/OpenAI key
generate_image	Image generation API key
ha_* (Home Assistant)	HA_URL + HA_TOKEN env vars

When a gated tool is called without its dependency, EdgeCrab returns a structured error explaining what’s missing.

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Tool Delay

Set tools.tool_delay to add a pause between consecutive tool calls. Useful for rate-limited APIs:

tools:
  tool_delay: 2.0           # 2 seconds between tool calls
  parallel_execution: false  # disable parallel calls for strict ordering

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Inspecting Tools at Runtime

edgecrab tools list               # all registered tools
edgecrab tools show file_read     # schema + description for one tool
edgecrab tools toolsets           # toolset aliases and their expansions

Inside a session:

/tools             # show currently active tools

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Pro Tips

Use the minimal toolset for sensitive work. --toolset minimal gives the agent only file and terminal. No web access, no browser. Useful when you want full control over what the agent can reach.

Add --toolset coding for most development tasks. This is the sweet spot: file read/write, terminal, file search, and code execution — everything for typical dev work without browser or web tools.

Create project-specific toolset aliases. Add to config.yaml:

tools:
  custom_groups:
    backend-dev:
      - read_file
      - write_file
      - patch
      - terminal
      - session_search
    docs-review:
      - read_file
      - web_search
      - vision_analyze

Then edgecrab --toolset backend-dev "add tests".

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I want the agent to use the terminal but NOT the web. Which toolset?

edgecrab --toolset file,terminal "run tests and fix failures"

Or define a custom group in config.yaml with exactly the tools you need.

Q: How do I know which tools the agent actually called?

Watch the ⚙ tool call indicators in the TUI. For a complete log, use:

edgecrab sessions show <id>

This shows every tool call and result from the full session history.

Q: The browser tools aren’t working. What’s missing?

EdgeCrab needs Chrome or Chromium to be installed, or a CDP_URL pointing to an existing Chrome instance. Check with edgecrab doctor — it reports browser availability.

Q: Can I write custom tools in Rust?

Yes, via the tool registry. Implement the Tool trait in a custom crate and register with inventory::submit!. See Architecture and Contributing for details.

Q: The mcp_* tools show as available but don’t work.

Add MCP server configuration to config.yaml:

mcp_servers:
  my-server:
    command: ["npx", "-y", "@my-org/my-mcp-server"]
    env:
      MY_KEY: "${MY_KEY}"

Then restart EdgeCrab. Run edgecrab tools list to confirm the MCP tools are visible.

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See Also

• ReAct Loop — How tools are called during the agent loop
• Browser Automation — Detailed browser tool documentation
• Security Model — How each tool call is security-checked
• Configuration — tools.* config section reference