AI engineering glossary · Prompt context engineering
What is tool description?
Tool description: The plain-language text in a tool definition explaining what the tool does, when to use it and what each parameter means. Since the model relies on it to choose tools, clear and specific descriptions strongly improve correct tool use.
Tool description: an example
'Look up an order's delivery status by order id. Use only when the customer gives an id starting with OD.'
Related terms
More Prompt context engineering terms
- Tool result message
- Tool schema
- Tree of Thoughts
- User prompt
- XML tags in prompts
- Zero-shot chain-of-thought
- Zero-shot prompting
- Analogical prompting
Where you learn it
Tool description is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.