Tool
Tools give your Team Agent real-time capabilities — look up data, create records, run queries, and take actions in external services. Runbear connects tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard for connecting AI agents to external systems.
How tools work
When your agent receives a message that requires external data or an action, it decides which tool to call, sends the request to the connected MCP server, and uses the response to formulate its answer. This happens in real time during the conversation.
For example, if a user asks "What's the status of ticket RB-1234?", the agent calls the Linear tool, fetches the ticket details, and replies with the current status.
Pre-built vs Custom
Runbear offers two ways to connect tools:
| Pre-built MCP Servers | Custom MCP Server | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Managed by Runbear | Self-hosted by you |
| Setup | One-click OAuth connection | Provide your MCP server URL |
| Use case | Popular SaaS integrations | Internal tools, private APIs |
| Catalog | 20+ managed servers, plus community catalog | Any MCP-compatible server |
Tool vs Knowledge Base
Tools and Knowledge Bases serve different purposes:
| Tool (MCP) | Knowledge Base | |
|---|---|---|
| Data access | Real-time API calls on demand | Pre-synced documents (RAG) |
| Best for | Actions, live lookups, writes | Grounding answers in existing docs |
| Example | Create a Linear issue, look up a Stripe payment | Answer "What's our refund policy?" from the company wiki |
Most agents benefit from both — tools for actions and live data, knowledge bases for grounded answers from your documentation.