Toolbox
The Toolbox tab shows all available tools the agent can use during conversations. Tools are actions the agent can invoke — searching the web, checking the weather, controlling cameras, or writing to memory.
Open via ⚙️ Settings → Abilities → Skills (Toolbox).
What Are Tools?
Tools give the agent the ability to do things, not just talk about them. When you ask "what's the weather like?", the agent doesn't guess — it invokes the weather tool and returns real data.
Without tools, the agent is limited to what it knows from training data. With tools, it can:
- Access real-time information — current weather, web search results, news
- Control your system — start/stop cameras, manage settings
- Write persistent data — save memories, create event handlers
- Use skill capabilities — any tool exposed by installed skills
Built-In Tools
These tools are always available (unless you disable them):
| Tool | What It Does | Example Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Web Search | Searches the internet for information | "What's in the news today?" — agent searches and summarizes results |
| Weather | Gets current weather and forecasts for a location | "What's the weather like outside?" — agent returns local weather data |
| Camera Control | Lists cameras, gets status, retrieves recent frames | "What cameras are online?" — agent checks and reports status |
| Memory Write | Saves information to the agent's memory files | "Remember that Sarah drives a blue Honda" — agent writes to memory |
| Memory Read | Reads from existing memory files | Agent automatically loads relevant memories when answering questions |
| Create Alert | Creates a new event handler | "Alert me when someone is at the front door" — agent creates the handler |
| Clip Search | Searches recorded clip descriptions | "Were there any deliveries today?" — agent searches clip AI descriptions |
Tool Invocation in Practice
When you ask a question, the agent decides whether to use a tool or answer from knowledge. This decision is automatic — you don't need to explicitly ask for a tool.
Example conversation:
You: "Is it going to rain today?" Agent: [invokes weather tool for your location] "Looking at the forecast... Yes, there's a 70% chance of rain this afternoon starting around 2pm. Might want to bring in anything on the porch!"
You: "What happened on the driveway this morning?" Agent: [invokes clip search tool for driveway camera, morning timeframe] "I found 3 clips from the driveway camera this morning: At 7:15am, your car left. At 9:42am, the mail carrier delivered a package. At 11:08am, a delivery truck stopped briefly but didn't leave anything."
Skill-Provided Tools
Installed skills can register their own tools. When a skill is running, its tools appear in the Toolbox and are available to the agent.
Examples of skill-provided tools:
- YOLO Detection may provide a "detect objects" tool that takes a frame and returns a list of detected objects with confidence scores
- Depth Estimation may provide a "estimate depth" tool for on-demand depth analysis
Skill tools appear in the Toolbox with a tag indicating which skill provides them.
Enabling and Disabling
Each tool has a toggle switch. When disabled:
- The agent cannot invoke that tool, even if asked
- The tool is hidden from the agent's available capabilities
- No error is thrown — the agent simply doesn't have access to it
This is useful for:
- Limiting capabilities — disable web search if you don't want the agent accessing the internet
- Reducing noise — disable tools you never use to keep the agent focused
- Privacy — disable memory write if you don't want the agent automatically saving observations
- Testing — temporarily disable a tool to see how the agent behaves without it
It's better to start with all tools enabled and disable ones you don't want. The agent is designed to use tools judiciously — it won't invoke web search unless a question genuinely requires internet data.
Tool Categories
Tools are grouped by their source:
| Category | Source | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in | Included with Aegis AI | Web search, weather, camera control, memory |
| Skill-provided | Added by installed skills | Detection, depth analysis, benchmark tools |
Tips
- Don't disable Memory Write unless you have a specific reason — the agent's ability to learn and remember is one of its most valuable features
- Disable Web Search if you want a fully offline agent — it works perfectly without internet access
- Changes take effect immediately — the agent's next response will reflect the updated tool availability