Tools
The built-in tools an agent can call, and how sub-agent jobs stay out of the parent context.
Built-in tools the model can call (see internal/tools/):
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
bash |
Run a shell command in the working directory |
read |
Read a file |
write |
Write a file (gated by permissions) |
edit |
Targeted edit of a file |
grep |
Regex search across files |
find |
File patterns (fd) |
ls |
Directory listing |
agent_spawn |
Start an isolated sub-agent job (async) |
agent_wait |
Wait for a job; returns short summary only |
agent_list |
List jobs |
agent_cancel |
Cancel a running job |
Sub-agent transcripts live under ~/.phi/jobs/<id>/ and are not injected
into the parent context — only the wait/task summary is.
Fast search tools (fd, ripgrep) are downloaded on first startup into
~/.phi/bin when missing.