Tool use (function calling)

What it is

Tool use (also called function calling) lets a model request that an external function be run — a web search, a database lookup, a calculator, an API call — and get the result back to reason over, instead of relying only on facts memorized during training.

Why it matters for you

This is what turns a chatbot into something that can actually take action for your business: check live inventory, book a meeting, look up a real order status. Without tools, the model can only talk about the world as of its training cutoff; with tools, it can act on current, private, or system-specific data.

Common failure mode

Giving the model a broad, loosely-described toolset (or too many similar tools) leads it to pick the wrong one or misuse a tool's parameters; tool descriptions need the same care as documentation for a human API consumer, and the tool list should be scoped to what's actually needed for the task.

This is exactly what we work through in a session.