AI Vocabulary · 05 Agents
What is Tool Call?
The model's structured request to use a tool. Software around the model decides whether to run it.
When an agent "uses" a tool, the model doesn't press any buttons. It writes a structured request, for example "send_email, to: X, subject: Y". The surrounding software reads that request, checks whether it is allowed, runs it and passes the result back to the model.
That separation is the safety point. The software can ask a person for approval, block certain actions or log everything. It also means a tool call can be wrong: the model can pick the wrong tool or fill in plausible but incorrect details, and the software will execute exactly what was written.
Why it matters for you
Approval prompts in AI tools ("allow this action?") are tool calls waiting for you. Read them. Clicking "allow" on autopilot removes the one checkpoint you have.
Own it
Being able to see and approve tool calls is what keeps a person in charge. Prefer tools that show you what an agent wants to do before it does it, and that keep a record afterwards.
Where it comes from
Research showed in early 2023 that language models can learn to call tools, for example Meta's Toolformer paper. The practice went mainstream on 13 June 2023, when OpenAI added "function calling" to its API, letting developers describe functions that the model can request in structured form (OpenAI). Other providers followed with their own versions.
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