tools

Tool reference

Every tool eVi ships with, grouped by category. Each tool is enabled via tools.<category> = true in ~/.evi/config.toml. Whether the agent can invoke it without prompting depends on auto.auto_approve (see Configuration).

Add your own tool by decorating a function with @tool(...) and importing the module from evi/apps/cli/main.py + evi/apps/web/server.py — see Development notes.

fs — filesystem (default on)

Tool	What it does
read_file	Read a UTF-8 text file. 256 KB cap for whole-file reads; pass offset (1-based start line) + limit (max lines) to stream a slice of a larger file. Errors string-returned.
write_file	Overwrite or create a file with UTF-8 text. Creates parents.
edit_file	Surgical edit: replace an exact old_string with new_string (once, or replace_all). Preferred over write_file for small changes — cheaper and safer than a full rewrite.
list_dir	List entries in a directory, marked D/F per kind.
find_files	Glob by name (e.g. **/*.py). Skips noise dirs (.git, node_modules, .venv, …). One path per line.
search_files	Literal regex grep over file contents (path:line: text). Narrow with glob (e.g. *.py) + ignore_case. For meaning-based search use find_in_project (the index category).

Safety: 256 KB read cap prevents loading huge blobs into context. There's no implicit traversal check — combine with a hook for that.

code — code execution (default on)

Tool	What it does
run_python	Run a Python 3 snippet in a subprocess with a 10s timeout. Combined stdout+stderr, capped at 16 KB. Fresh temp cwd.
monitor	Watch for a bounded window (≤300s): kind=file tails NEW lines of a log; kind=command runs a shell command and collects output. Returns early when an until regex matches — for babysitting a build/CI run or tailing a log.

Not a sandbox. Acceptable for trusted local use. For untrusted code, wrap with a Docker hook or disable the category.

memory — long-term memory (default on)

Tool	What it does
remember	Save markdown under ~/.evi/memory/<name>.md. Overwrites.
recall	Return the full body of a stored memory.
forget	Soft delete — move the file to .attic/. Recoverable.
list_memories	JSON of [{name, summary}, …] — same data agents see in the system prompt.

The memory index is regenerated on every write/delete and appears in the agent's system prompt automatically. The dreaming engine relies on soft-delete to avoid permanently losing data.

skills — saved instruction packets (default on)

Tool	What it does
list_skills	JSON of [{name, description}, …].
invoke_skill	Return the full SKILL.md body so the agent can follow it.

Skills live in ~/.evi/skills/<name>/SKILL.md with optional YAML frontmatter (name, description). Example skill in examples/skills/.

image — ComfyUI image generation (default OFF)

Tool	What it does
generate_image	text2img via ComfyUI. Submits workflow → polls → fetches → saves to ~/.evi/images/. Returns JSON {prompt_id, seed, paths}.

Requires ComfyUI running at comfy.base_url (default http://localhost:8188). Workflow params: prompt, negative_prompt, width, height, steps, seed, cfg, sampler, scheduler.

subagent — delegated sub-conversations (default OFF)

Tool	What it does
delegate_explore	Spawn a read-only investigation subagent (fs only).
delegate_plan	Spawn a planning subagent (no tools; thinks then returns).

Each spawns a fresh Agent with the dream-style scoped tool list, runs to completion, returns the final text + a short trace. Useful for keeping the main conversation focused.

web — web search + fetch (default OFF)

Tool	What it does
web_search	DuckDuckGo search via ddgs. Returns JSON [{title, url, snippet}, …].
web_fetch	Download a URL (http/https only) and return extracted text. 1 MB raw cap, 16 KB output cap.

Requires pip install 'evi-assistant[web-tools]' (gets ddgs and beautifulsoup4).

voice — TTS + STT (default OFF)

Tool	What it does
speak_text	Speak text via local TTS (PowerShell SAPI / say / espeak). Returns immediately.
transcribe_microphone	Record duration seconds and transcribe via faster-whisper.

speak needs no Python deps — uses platform CLIs. transcribe_microphone needs pip install 'evi-assistant[stt]' (faster-whisper + sounddevice + numpy).

computer — mouse / keyboard / screen (default OFF, NEVER auto-approved)

Tool	What it does
screenshot	Capture primary display, save under ~/.evi/screenshots/.
click	Move mouse to (x, y) and click. button ∈ {left, right, middle}.
move	Move mouse to (x, y) without clicking.
type_text	Type text at the focused element (per-keystroke pause).
key	Press a named key (enter, tab, f5, …).
scroll	Scroll the wheel. Positive = up.
screen_size	Return primary display dimensions as JSON.

Safety:

• Category never lives in auto.auto_approve — every action prompts the human.
• pyautogui.FAILSAFE = True — slam the mouse into a corner to abort.
• Requires pip install 'evi-assistant[computer]' (pyautogui + pillow).

sqlite — SQLite queries (default OFF)

Tool	What it does
sqlite_schema	Return tables + columns for a sqlite file as JSON.
sqlite_query	Run a read-only SELECT (rejects DDL/DML). Returns rows JSON.

pdf — PDF reading (default OFF)

Tool	What it does
read_pdf	Extract text from a PDF. Page-range optional. Caps total output.

Requires pip install 'evi-assistant[pdf]' (PyMuPDF).

mcp — Model Context Protocol (default OFF)

When enabled, ~/.evi/mcp.json is loaded and each MCP server's tools appear in the registry as <server>.<tool>. The catalog is per-installation — see evi mcp list-tools for whatever you've wired up.

transcripts — session logs (default on, no LLM-facing tool)

Background concern, not a callable tool. When tools.transcripts = true, Agent writes every message to ~/.evi/transcripts/<day>/<session>.jsonl. This feeds evi dream and evi sessions list/resume.

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Quick safety table

Category	Default	In default auto_approve	Notes
fs	on	✅	Read/write to anywhere user can access
code	on	✅	Not sandboxed; subprocess timeout 10s
memory	on	✅	Soft-delete keeps data recoverable
skills	on	✅	Read-only on shipped skill files
image	off	✅	Network: ComfyUI on localhost only
subagent	off	❌	Spawns more LLM calls
web	off	❌	Real network
voice	off	❌	Records mic / speaks audio
computer	off	❌ (never)	Drives the desktop
sqlite	off	❌	DB content may be sensitive
pdf	off	❌	File reads
mcp	off	❌	Whatever the MCP server does

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Tool search at scale

With many tools enabled (especially several MCP servers), sending every tool schema on every turn bloats the context. Turn on deferred tool search:

[tools]
tool_search = true            # off by default
tool_search_threshold = 30    # only defers once the toolset exceeds this

When active, the fs and memory tools stay loaded and the long tail moves behind a single search_tools meta-tool. The model calls search_tools("git commit") to surface matching tools; they're added to the live toolset and become callable on the next step — still subject to the normal per-category permission gating (search_tools only exposes tools, never runs them). Below the threshold it's a no-op, so it's safe to leave on.

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Generated from docs/tools.md — edit there, not here.