Tools and Skills

Last updated: 2026-09-25

Select agent tools and task instructions with permissions and project binding.

A Tool performs an operation, such as reading a file. A Skill supplies instructions, resources, and optional tools for a type of task. Decide what the agent needs to read or change, then select the relevant tools and guidance.

The steps below assume an existing custom agent and Project. External agents configure capabilities through their own supported mechanisms.

Add capabilities

Review the selectable tools in the Tools tab of an Agent or Project. ToolBlock cards show a description and member tools, plus an Approval badge when a call may need approval; individual tools appear in a dropdown with name, description, and category.
Manage available Skills and read their instructions and prerequisites.
Bind the tools and Skills needed for this task to the agent.
Start a new turn in the correct Project. Verify read operations before testing necessary writes.

Every tool explicitly declares AgwToolPermission. The execution pipeline checks permissions; saying “allowed” in a prompt does not bypass permission or ownership checks.

Built-in ToolBlocks

ToolBlock	Purpose	Configurable on
Todo	Tracks multi-step work with a persistent todo list	Agent, Project
Mode	Switches between Plan and Execute; see Plan and Execute modes	Agent, Project
File Access	Reads and modifies files in the Project workspace	Agent, Project
User Memory	Memory for the current user across Projects	Agent, Project
Project Memory	Memory shared across the current Project, stored in the database or the primary directory; see Memory	Agent, Project
Background Agents	Delegates work to explicitly allowed agents chosen in Allowed delegation targets	Agent only

In File Access, file_access_read, file_access_read_lines, file_access_ls, and file_access_grep are read-only and allowed in Plan mode; file_access_write, file_access_delete, file_access_replace, and file_access_replace_lines require write permission.

AGW Desktop: select ToolBlocks as groups in the Agent’s Tools tab and inspect their member tools.

Local and Remote Skills

Choose a mode according to how you maintain the content:

Mode	Content source	How to update
Local	Upload a ZIP containing `SKILL.md`; files are stored on the AGW server	Edit the Skill and upload a new ZIP
Remote	Provide an HTTP or HTTPS URL that downloads a Skill ZIP	Update the remote content and let AGW refresh its cache; editing and saving the Remote Skill also fetches it again

“Local” means the AGW server, not the computer running the browser. Remote refers to where the instructions come from; the Agent still performs the task.

Create a Skill in Skills and select Local or Remote.
For Local, enter a name and description and upload a ZIP containing SKILL.md. For Remote, enter the ZIP download URL without uploading a file. AGW downloads it with an unauthenticated GET, so URLs that require sign-in or a token cannot be used.
A Remote package must contain exactly one SKILL.md, with name and description in its YAML frontmatter and instructions in its body. The remote file supplies the name and description.
After saving, select the Skill in an Agent or Project and use a small relevant task to verify that its instructions are available.

Remote Skills currently read the instructions from the package. They do not download and run its scripts or expose its other resource files. If those files are needed, use Local mode and prepare the execution environment.

Remote Skill cache

AGW fetches content when a Remote Skill is created or saved and caches it in the database for one hour.

Reads reuse a valid cache to avoid repeated downloads.
After expiration, the next read fetches fresh content. This is not an hourly background download.
After updating remote content, wait for the cache to expire or edit and save the Remote Skill to fetch it again.
A failed refresh returns an error. It does not extend the old cache’s lifetime or serve expired content. Check that the server can reach the download URL and that the ZIP and SKILL.md formats are valid.

During automatic refresh, the remote name must match the saved Skill name. If the remote name changes, edit and save the Skill to update its definition. Refreshing the cache does not rewrite content already loaded into a conversation; have the Agent read the Skill again when verifying updated instructions.

Skill-owned tools

Skill-owned tools are registered through the Skill and bound to the Project at runtime. They are not global catalog entries, so absence from the global list does not imply unavailability.

For example, agw-job supplies agw_job_list, agw_job_get, agw_job_create, agw_job_update, and agw_job_delete. Reads work in Plan mode; writes are prohibited there.

AGW Desktop: find and select agw-job in the Agent’s Skills tab.

Verify

Inspect tool names, arguments, and results to confirm the intended Project was used. For missing capabilities, check Skill bindings and execution mode. For external services, configure MCP or Integrations.