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ToolsTool Settings

Tool Settings

Each tool on an agent-server binding has one of three statuses. This is how you give an agent tight, read-only access to one server and full write access to another — without having to juggle separate agents.

The three states

Always allow

The tool runs immediately when the LLM calls it. No prompt, no interrupt.

Use for: read-only tools, low-risk actions, tools you trust completely.

Needs approval

When the LLM calls the tool, the LangGraph run hits a HITL interrupt . The chat shows an approval card with the tool name and the exact arguments. The user can:

  • Approve — the call proceeds and the agent resumes
  • Reject — the tool returns a rejection message to the LLM, which decides what to do next

In Slack, approvals are posted as Block Kit messages with Approve and Reject buttons.

Use for: write operations, actions with side effects, tools that modify external data.

Disabled

The tool is stripped from the toolset the LLM sees. The model cannot call it and does not know it exists.

Use for: tools that are off-topic for the agent, or tools you want to temporarily kill-switch.

Changing tool settings

  1. Open the agent’s configuration page
  2. In the MCP server section, click through the tool list
  3. Cycle each tool through the three states
✓  Always allow
⏸  Needs approval
✗  Disabled

Defaults

When an MCP server is first bound to an agent, every tool defaults to Always allow. Review the list and tighten writes before exposing the agent to users.

Per-agent, per-server

Tool settings live on the agent-server binding, so the same MCP server can have different permissions on different agents:

  • A Read-only CRM Agent might have every HubSpot write tool disabled
  • A Sales Assistant might have HubSpot writes set to needs approval
  • An Automation Agent owned by an admin might have everything always allow

Changing settings takes effect on the next message — existing thread checkpoints are unaffected.

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