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Agent Tools

Comprehensive toolset for AI agents to perform file operations, code editing, web research, and task management across platforms.

Overview​

The Agent Tools package provides a complete suite of automation nodes designed for AI-powered workflows. These tools enable file system operations, text processing, web interactions, and task management with advanced features like encoding support, regex matching, and background process management.

Nodes​

File Operations​

  • Read - Reads files with line numbers and encoding support
  • Write - Writes content to files with atomic write support
  • Edit - Performs exact string replacements in files
  • Multi Edit - Performs multiple find-and-replace operations efficiently

File Search and Discovery​

  • Grep - Powerful search tool for finding patterns in files with regex support
  • Glob - Fast file pattern matching with glob syntax
  • LS - Lists files and directories with filtering options

Shell and Process Management​

  • Shell - Executes shell commands with timeout and environment control
  • Bash Output - Retrieves output from running background shells
  • Kill Bash - Terminates running background shells

Jupyter Notebook Support​

Task Management​

  • Todo Write - Creates and manages structured task lists

Web Operations​

  • Web Fetch - Fetches and processes web content
  • Web Search - Performs web searches with multiple search engines

Key Features​

Advanced File Handling​

  • Automatic encoding detection (UTF-8, UTF-16, Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1)
  • Binary file detection and base64 encoding
  • Atomic file writes for data integrity
  • Line numbering and truncation for long files

Powerful Search Capabilities​

  • Regular expression support with case-insensitive matching
  • Multiline pattern matching
  • File type filtering (js, py, go, rust, java, etc.)
  • Glob pattern matching
  • Context lines (before/after matches)

Process Management​

  • Background shell execution
  • Real-time output streaming
  • Process termination control
  • Multiple shell sessions support

Cross-Platform Support​

  • Works on Linux, Windows, and macOS
  • Auto-detection of shell environments (bash, sh, cmd, powershell)
  • Platform-specific optimizations

Common Use Cases​

Code Analysis and Refactoring​

Use Grep to find patterns across your codebase, then use Edit or Multi Edit to perform automated refactoring operations.

Log Processing​

Read log files with encoding support, use Grep to filter relevant entries, and process them for analysis.

Automated Testing​

Execute shell commands for test setup, monitor output with Bash Output, and clean up with Kill Bash.

Jupyter Notebook Automation​

Read notebook cells, analyze code and outputs, and modify cells programmatically.

Task Tracking​

Use Todo Write to maintain structured task lists with status tracking and persistence.

Web Research​

Fetch web content with Web Fetch, search for information with Web Search, and process results.

Installation​

The Agent-Tools package is available as part of the Robomotion package ecosystem. Install it through the Robomotion package manager.

Best Practices​

File Operations​

  • Always use absolute paths for file operations
  • Check file existence before editing
  • Use atomic writes to prevent data corruption
  • Handle encoding explicitly when dealing with non-UTF8 files

Search Operations​

  • Start with file type filters to improve performance
  • Use glob patterns for directory-level filtering
  • Leverage context lines for better understanding of matches
  • Consider case-insensitive matching for user input

Shell Operations​

  • Set appropriate timeouts for long-running commands
  • Use background execution for non-blocking operations
  • Monitor output regularly with Bash Output
  • Clean up background processes with Kill Bash

Error Handling​

  • Enable "Continue On Error" for non-critical operations
  • Check exit codes from shell commands
  • Validate file paths before operations
  • Handle encoding errors gracefully