Build Custom Tools

Custom tools let you expose business-specific capabilities to Synkora agents.

Use Custom Tools When

• the action is unique to your product or workflow
• a built-in tool is not enough
• an OAuth provider does not model the behavior you need
• you want a controlled interface over internal business logic

What Makes a Good Custom Tool

A good custom tool has:

• a narrow purpose
• a predictable schema
• clear success and error outputs
• explicit side-effect boundaries

Design Rules

• keep parameters explicit
• avoid one giant “do anything” tool
• make write actions obvious
• return structured output the model can reason about

Security Advice

• validate every input server-side
• authenticate outside the model layer
• enforce tenant boundaries in the tool implementation
• log sensitive actions

When To Use MCP Instead

If the capability already exists behind an MCP server or you want a standard external tool boundary, prefer MCP over inventing a custom one-off integration layer.