Designing the Agent: Tools and Memory

Planning Before Coding

Before we write code, let’s plan what our agent needs.

The Tools

Our agent needs three tools:

1. addTodo - Add a new task

   • Parameters: text (required), dueDate (optional)
   • Returns: The created todo

2. listTodos - List all tasks

   • Parameters: None
   • Returns: Array of all todos

3. completeTodo - Mark a task as done

   • Parameters: id (required)
   • Returns: The completed todo

The Memory

We’ll use a simple in-memory array. Each todo looks like this:

type Todo = {
  id: number;
  text: string;
  done: boolean;
  dueDate?: string;
};

Important Notes

• This is not long-term memory - it resets when the server restarts
• It’s enough for learning the concept
• In production, you’d use a database

Design Exercise

Think about this: What other tool could you add later?

Some ideas:

• clearCompleted() - Remove all completed tasks
• updateTodo() - Edit an existing task
• searchTodos() - Find tasks by keyword

We’ll stick with the three basic tools for now. Ready to implement them?

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