Tools overview

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How tools work in MagOneAI

MagOneAI agents connect to external services through MCP (Model Context Protocol), Anthropic’s open standard for AI-tool communication. Instead of building proprietary integrations, MagOneAI adopted MCP to ensure your agents can work with any MCP-compatible tool — now and in the future. When an agent needs to take action in the real world — schedule a meeting, send an email, query a database, or search the web — it calls a tool. The platform handles authentication, execution, and response handling, so your agents can focus on reasoning and decision-making.

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MCP architecture overview

The Model Context Protocol defines a standardized way for AI agents to discover and interact with external tools:

• MCP servers expose tools and resources to agents
• MagOneAI connects to MCP servers as a client on behalf of your agents
• Each tool has defined parameters and return types using JSON Schema
• Agents discover available tools and call them during reasoning loops

This architecture means you’re not locked into a proprietary tool ecosystem. Tools built for MagOneAI work with any MCP client, and tools built for other MCP clients work with MagOneAI.

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Built-in tools

MagOneAI includes ready-to-use integrations with popular services. Enable them in your project settings and connect your accounts.

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Full built-in catalog

Each integration is an MCP server the platform ships and manages. Enable the ones your project needs and connect credentials once. Authentication is handled the way each service expects: an OAuth sign-in, an API key, a connection string, or nothing at all.

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Built-in agent tools

Beyond MCP integrations, an Agent node can be given a set of system tools that need no connection or credentials. You select which ones an agent gets in its capabilities:

• get_current_time — the current date and time, so an agent reasons against “now” instead of guessing.
• calculator — deterministic arithmetic, so numbers come from a real calculation rather than the model’s estimate.
• File tools — read, write, edit, glob, and grep for working with files an agent has access to (for example, an uploaded document): find files, read them (PDF/DOCX/Excel text is pre-extracted automatically), search inside them, and write or edit file contents.

These are enabled per agent, so you grant only what a given agent should be able to do.

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Requesting a new integration

If the integration you need isn’t in the built-in catalog yet, use the Request an integration form on the MCP Tools page. The request reaches the platform team as an integration request, so they can prioritize adding it. In the meantime, you can often cover the gap yourself with a custom MCP tool or the API node.

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Custom tools

Beyond built-in integrations, you can add any MCP-compatible tool server to MagOneAI. Connect your internal APIs, proprietary systems, or third-party services:

• Build an MCP server using Python or TypeScript SDKs
• Wrap any REST API with tool definitions
• Register the server in your project settings
• Agents can now call your custom tools

Learn more in the Custom MCP tools guide.

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OAuth flow management

For tools that require user authentication (Google, Microsoft), MagOneAI handles the entire OAuth flow: Users authenticate once per service. After that, agents can use those tools on the user’s behalf without re-authentication.

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Tool execution in workflows

You can use tools in two ways within your workflows:

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Via Agent nodes

When you attach tools to an agent, the agent decides when and how to call them based on its reasoning. This is non-deterministic — the agent chooses which tools to use and with what parameters. Example: An agent node with system prompt “Schedule a meeting with the client based on their availability” will:

1. Check the client’s calendar using the calendar tool
2. Find available time slots
3. Create a calendar event with appropriate details

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Via Tool nodes

Tool nodes execute a specific tool with specified parameters. This is deterministic — you control exactly which tool runs and when. Example: A Tool node configured to “Send email to john@example.com with subject ‘Weekly Report’ and body from variable report_content” will always send that exact email. Use Agent nodes for intelligence and flexibility. Use Tool nodes for guaranteed execution of specific actions.

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Security and credentials

All credentials are stored in HashiCorp Vault:

• API keys for platform-level integrations (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
• OAuth tokens for user-authenticated services (Google, Microsoft)
• Database connection strings for SQL tools
• Custom integration secrets for your internal APIs

Credentials are never exposed in:

• Workflow configurations
• Agent logs or traces
• API responses
• User interfaces

They’re injected at runtime only when needed, then immediately discarded from memory.

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Next steps