@robota-sdk/agent-tools

Tool registry, tool creation infrastructure, 8 built-in CLI tools, sandbox execution ports, and sandbox workspace manifests for the Robota SDK.

Installation

npm install @robota-sdk/agent-tools

Peer dependency: @robota-sdk/agent-core

Quick Start

Create a Tool with Zod

import { createZodFunctionTool } from '@robota-sdk/agent-tools';
import { z } from 'zod';

const weatherTool = createZodFunctionTool(
  'get_weather',
  'Get current weather for a city',
  z.object({
    city: z.string().describe('City name'),
  }),
  async (args) => JSON.stringify({ city: args['city'], temperature: 22, condition: 'sunny' }),
);

Use Built-in Tools

import { bashTool, readTool, globTool, grepTool } from '@robota-sdk/agent-tools';
import { Robota } from '@robota-sdk/agent-core';
import type { IAIProvider } from '@robota-sdk/agent-core';

declare const provider: IAIProvider;
const agent = new Robota({
  name: 'DevAgent',
  aiProviders: [provider],
  defaultModel: { provider: 'anthropic', model: 'claude-sonnet-4-6' },
  tools: [bashTool, readTool, globTool, grepTool],
});

Built-in Tools

| Export | Tool Name | Description | | --------------------- | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | shellTool | Shell | Execute host shell commands; OS-aware (POSIX sh/bash, Windows PowerShell) | | bashTool | Bash | Model-familiar alias of Shell — same OS-aware implementation | | readTool | Read | Read file contents with line numbers (cat -n) | | writeTool | Write | Write content to a file (creates parent dirs) | | editTool | Edit | Replace a specific string in a file | | globTool | Glob | Find files matching a glob pattern (fast-glob) | | grepTool | Grep | Search file contents with regex patterns | | webFetchTool | WebFetch | Fetch URL content (HTML-to-text conversion) | | webSearchTool | WebSearch | Web search via Brave Search API | | askUserQuestionTool | AskUserQuestion | Model asks the user structured questions (options/multi-select/free text) |

AskUserQuestion lets the model ask the user 1–4 structured questions mid-turn through the injected ask port (CMD-004); each environment renders it its own way (Ink dialog, web modal, programmatic pre-answer), and headless runs get a structured unavailable result instead of a hang or a guess.

Shell and Bash are two registered names for one OS-aware implementation: the shell is resolved per-OS and the tool description names the active OS/shell so the model writes the right syntax (e.g. macOS BSD vs Linux GNU utilities differ).

Factory exports (createBashTool, createReadTool, createWriteTool, createEditTool) accept an optional sandboxClient. The default singleton exports keep host-local behavior.

Sandbox Execution

ISandboxClient is the provider-neutral execution-plane port used by sandbox-aware built-in tools:

import { E2BSandboxClient, createBashTool, createReadTool } from '@robota-sdk/agent-tools';
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b';

const e2b = await Sandbox.create();
const sandboxClient = new E2BSandboxClient({ sandbox: e2b });

const bashTool = createBashTool({ sandboxClient });
const readTool = createReadTool({ sandboxClient });

The package does not depend on E2B directly. E2BSandboxClient adapts an E2B-compatible object with commands.run, files.read, files.write, and optional createSnapshot, pause, connect, or factory methods supplied by the application. snapshot() returns a provider-owned resumable workspace reference; restore(snapshotId) hydrates the adapter from that reference. InMemorySandboxClient is available for deterministic tests and contract verification.

Workspace Manifests

IWorkspaceManifest declares the fresh sandbox workspace before a session starts. Paths are workspace-relative and cannot escape the target root.

import { applyWorkspaceManifest, E2BSandboxClient } from '@robota-sdk/agent-tools';
import { Sandbox } from 'e2b';

const sandbox = await Sandbox.create();
const sandboxClient = new E2BSandboxClient({ sandbox });

await applyWorkspaceManifest(sandboxClient, {
  entries: {
    'task.md': { type: 'file', content: 'Analyze this repository.\n' },
    repo: { type: 'gitRepo', url: 'https://github.com/example/project.git', ref: 'main' },
    output: { type: 'dir' },
  },
});

The generic applicator writes inline/local files, creates directories, and clones Git repositories through ISandboxClient. Cloud storage mount entries are part of the contract, but they return unsupported until a provider-specific adapter implements native mounting.

Edit and Write Safety

Recent file tool updates keep write/edit behavior atomic and make Edit tool results easier for higher layers to display. Atomic replacements preserve existing target mode bits, so executable scripts remain executable after Write or Edit updates. The Edit tool returns line metadata for changed regions, allowing the CLI to render concise context hunks instead of dumping full files or opaque summaries.

Tool Infrastructure

| Export | Description | | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | ToolRegistry | Central tool registration and schema lookup | | FunctionTool | JS function tool with Zod schema validation | | createFunctionTool | Factory for creating function tools | | createZodFunctionTool | Factory with Zod validation and JSON Schema conversion | | OpenAPITool | Tool generated from OpenAPI specification | | createOpenAPITool | Factory for creating OpenAPI tools | | IToolInvocationResult | Result type for built-in CLI tool invocations | | ISandboxClient | Provider-neutral sandbox execution port | | IWorkspaceManifest | Declarative sandbox workspace setup contract | | applyWorkspaceManifest | Generic manifest applicator for sandbox clients | | E2BSandboxClient | Adapter for E2B-compatible sandbox instances and snapshots | | InMemorySandboxClient | Deterministic sandbox client for tests |

IToolInvocationResult Shape

interface IToolInvocationResult {
  success: boolean;
  output: string;
  error?: string;
  exitCode?: number;
  startLine?: number; // Start line number of the edit in the original file (Edit tool only)
}

IToolInvocationResult is the inner result type used by built-in tools. It is serialized to JSON and placed inside the IToolResult.data field before being returned to the Robota execution loop.

Dependencies

| Dependency | Kind | Purpose | | ------------------------ | ---- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | @robota-sdk/agent-core | Peer | Abstract tool base class, tool interfaces, event types | | fast-glob | Prod | High-performance glob matching for the Glob tool | | zod | Prod | Schema validation for function tool parameters |

License

Robota is dual-licensed under the GNU AGPL-3.0 or a commercial license. See LICENSING.md.