Whatever message this page gives is out now! Go check it out!
Tool Naming Conventions
Last update:
May 18, 2026
Tool names are what agents see and what advanced users may refer to explicitly. Good naming is critical for discoverability and correct usage.
Overview
Tool names are what agents see and what advanced users may refer to explicitly. Good naming is critical for discoverability and correct usage.
General Principles
Tool names should be:
- Action-oriented – start with a verb (e.g., get_, create_, update_, delete_, analyze_, summarize_).
- Specific – express both the action and the domain (e.g., get_project_status, create_invoice_pdf).
- Stable – avoid renaming tools arbitrarily; rename only when truly necessary, and consider leaving a deprecated alias.
Preferred style:
- Lowercase with underscores: get_weather, summarize_document, send_invoice_email.
- No spaces; no special characters beyond _ unless required by your internal convention.
Avoiding Ambiguity
From a user’s perspective, ambiguous names lead to incorrect tool selection by the agent. Examples to avoid:
- run – too generic
- process – unclear what is processed
- do_action – meaningless
Better alternatives:
- run_monthly_report
- process_upload_queue
- create_project_from_template
Names and Server Scoping
If you have multiple MCP servers, you might see tool names combined with server identifiers in some clients, for example:
- analytics-mcp__get_dashboard
- billing-mcp__create_invoice
The part before
__ identifies the server; the part after identifies the tool. As a user: - You can generally ignore the prefix; the agent chooses the server.
- If you manually select tools, use the full name exactly as presented.
We're glad. Tell us how this page helped.
We're sorry. Can you tell us what didn't work for you?
Share additional feedback to help us improve.
0/255
|
