Protocols & Integration

Protocol Landscape and MCP

Before a model can call a tool, both sides have to agree on the contract: what the tool is called, what arguments it accepts, and what it returns. This module maps the protocol landscape and shows where MCP fits.

Tool Schema Design

The schema is not documentation: it is the instruction the model reads to decide whether to call your tool and what to pass. A bad schema causes wrong tool selections, invalid arguments, and hallucinated parameter values. This module covers what separates a production schema from a prototype one.

Tool Execution Patterns

A single tool call is easy. Production tool use involves chains of calls, parallel execution, shared state, and the ever-present risk of runaway loops. This module covers the patterns that make multi-step tool execution reliable.

Real API Integration

Wrapping a real API as a tool means handling all the things the happy path ignores: auth token expiry, rate limits, flaky networks, non-idempotent operations, and paginated results. This module covers the mechanics of building tool integrations that survive production.

Streaming and Async Tool Workflows

Streaming gives users tokens as they arrive instead of waiting for the full response. Async tools let long-running operations run in the background. Both change how you wire together models and tools, and both have sharp edges that aren't obvious until you're in production.

Security Boundaries

Tools give models real capabilities: which means tool-using systems inherit the security risks of real software plus some new ones specific to AI. Prompt injection, over-privileged tools, and undelimited external content are the three failure modes that show up first. This module covers the boundaries that need to exist.

Production Operations

A tool-using system has more moving parts than a simple prompt-response loop, and more things that can go wrong. This module covers the observability, cost management, and resilience patterns that keep tool integrations reliable after launch.

Testing and Reliability

Tool-using systems are hard to test because the interesting behavior emerges from the interaction between the model and the tools, not from either alone. This module covers the testing strategy that catches real failures: schema drift, unexpected model behavior, and integration regressions.