Tools

Tools give agents the ability to interact with the host system, the web, and external services. Enable tools per-agent in the agent editor.

Available Tools

shell

Execute shell commands on the host machine. Commands run as the SwarmClaw process user with the same permissions.

• Use case: Build projects, run scripts, manage files, install packages
• Security: Full shell access. Only grant to trusted agents.
• Output: stdout and stderr are captured and returned to the agent

process

Manage long-running shell processes started by shell.

• Use case: Poll build logs, keep dev servers running, send stdin, stop hung jobs
• Operations: list, status, poll, log, write, kill, clear, remove
• Behavior: Works with process IDs returned when shell commands run in background/yield mode

files

Read files and list directory contents.

• Use case: Inspect codebases, read configuration, explore project structure
• Operations: read_file, write_file, list_files, send_file, copy_file, move_file
• Optional destructive op: delete_file (off by default unless explicitly enabled)
• Limits: Large files are truncated to avoid context overflow

edit_file

Create new files or apply targeted edits to existing files.

• Use case: Write code, update configs, patch files
• Operation: edit_file (single exact-match search/replace)
• Behavior: Requires oldText to match exactly once, reducing accidental broad rewrites

web_search

Search the web and return structured results.

• Use case: Research, fact-checking, finding documentation
• Backend: Configurable search provider (default: DuckDuckGo)
• Returns: Title, URL, and snippet for each result

web_fetch

Fetch a URL and extract its content as clean text or markdown.

• Use case: Read articles, pull API docs, scrape data
• Behavior: HTML is converted to readable text, stripping nav/ads
• Limits: Response size is capped to avoid context overflow

claude_code

Enable CLI delegation tools for complex coding tasks.

• Delegation tools: delegate_to_claude_code, delegate_to_codex_cli, delegate_to_opencode_cli
• Use case: Delegate multi-step coding work to a specialized CLI agent
• Requirements: install and authenticate the target CLI (claude, codex, and/or opencode)
• Behavior: each delegate tool runs its CLI in non-interactive mode and returns explicit timeout/exit diagnostics when delegation fails

browser

MCP browser automation powered by Playwright.

• Use case: Navigate websites, fill forms, take screenshots, scrape dynamic content
• For Claude CLI agents: Passes --mcp-config with the browser server config
• For LangGraph agents: Spawns a Playwright MCP subprocess
• Requirement: Playwright must be installed (npx playwright install)

memory

Store and retrieve long-term memories that persist across sessions.

• Use case: Remember facts, preferences, and context between conversations
• Operations: store, search, list, get, delete
• Scoping: Supports both shared memory and agent-scoped memory

connector_message_tool

Send proactive outbound messages via running connectors (for example WhatsApp updates from agents).

• Use case: Status updates, alerts, and proactive follow-ups outside the dashboard
• Actions: list_running, list_targets, send
• Send fields: message plus optional imageUrl, fileUrl, mimeType, fileName, caption
• Notes: Platform media support varies by connector/runtime capabilities

Platform Tools

Platform tools let agents manage SwarmClaw resources directly — creating tasks, scheduling jobs, and managing other agents programmatically.

Enable these per-agent in the Platform section of the agent editor.

For ongoing, agentic workflows, combine:

• manage_tasks to maintain a visible execution backlog
• manage_schedules to run recurring follow-ups
• manage_agents to spin up specialist agents
• manage_connectors to keep outbound channel integrations ready

Assignment Scope

When manage_tasks or manage_schedules is enabled, an Assign to Other Agents toggle appears in the agent editor.

• Off (default): The agent can only assign tasks and schedules to itself. It won't see a list of other agents and attempts to assign to others are blocked server-side.
• On: The agent sees all available agents and can assign tasks and schedules to any of them.

The default Assistant agent ships with this toggle on. New agents default to off for safety — you opt in to cross-agent assignment explicitly.

Tool Permissions

Tools are opt-in per agent. An agent with no tools enabled can only generate text responses. Grant the minimum set of tools each agent needs.

Warning: The shell tool gives the agent full command-line access to your machine. Use with caution and never expose agents with shell access to untrusted users.