What is Tool Use?
A model asking your code to run a function, such as an order lookup or a refund, by emitting a structured call and then reading the result. The model chooses when to call; your code decides what each tool may do.
order_status(4471) → shipped
With tool use, the model…
Write it in your own words in the app.
In real work
For launch, tool use covered read-only order lookups only, and the refund tool shipped a month later behind a confirmation step the agent cannot skip.
In the illustration
The desk cannot reach the records, so it sends a capsule holding a typed request slip. The records room runs the lookup and fires the capsule back, and the desk reads the answer.
Design tool use for our support agent in your model: list each tool with its inputs, what it may read or change, and which calls need a person to confirm first.
Try it now
The fastest way to learn a word is to use it. Open this line in the agent you already work in and watch what it does. Change the tool to the one you use.
Go further
01Practice
Make it stick
One term a day, a short quiz, and sentence practice that checks your own words.
02Verify
Prove you know it
Pass the quiz and keep it in a Skills Wallet you can share with anyone who needs proof.
03Career
Find the work that uses it
See which roles lean on this vocabulary, and what they pay in year one.
Learn the next term tomorrow.
Google gives a definition. Prompthaus pairs each term with how it shows up in standups, PRs, prompts, and design reviews. Then it quizzes you until the word sticks. One term a day on iPhone.
