Tools overview

​

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.

​

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.

​

Built-in tools

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

​

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.

​

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.

​

Tool execution in workflows

You can use tools in two ways within your workflows:

​

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

​

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 [email protected] 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.

​

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.

​

Next steps