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title Step 2: Add Tools
description Give your agent the ability to call functions and interact with the world.
zone_pivot_groups programming-languages
author eavanvalkenburg
ms.topic tutorial
ms.author edvan
ms.date 02/09/2026
ms.service agent-framework

Step 2: Add Tools

Tools let your agent call custom functions — like fetching weather data, querying a database, or calling an API.

:::zone pivot="programming-language-csharp"

Define a tool as any method with a [Description] attribute:

using System.ComponentModel;

[Description("Get the weather for a given location.")]
static string GetWeather([Description("The location to get the weather for.")] string location)
    => $"The weather in {location} is cloudy with a high of 15°C.";

Create an agent with the tool:

using System;
using Azure.AI.Projects;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;

var endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT")
    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("Set AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT");
var deploymentName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME") ?? "gpt-4o-mini";

AIAgent agent = new AIProjectClient(new Uri(endpoint), new DefaultAzureCredential())
    .AsAIAgent(
        model: deploymentName,
        instructions: "You are a helpful assistant.",
        tools: [AIFunctionFactory.Create(GetWeather)]);

Warning

DefaultAzureCredential is convenient for development but requires careful consideration in production. In production, consider using a specific credential (e.g., ManagedIdentityCredential) to avoid latency issues, unintended credential probing, and potential security risks from fallback mechanisms.

The agent will automatically call your tool when relevant:

Console.WriteLine(await agent.RunAsync("What is the weather like in Amsterdam?"));

Tip

See here for a full runnable sample application.

:::zone-end

:::zone pivot="programming-language-python"

Define a tool with the @tool decorator:

:::code language="python" source="~/../agent-framework-code/python/samples/01-get-started/02_add_tools.py" id="define_tool" highlight="3":::

Create an agent with the tool:

:::code language="python" source="~/../agent-framework-code/python/samples/01-get-started/02_add_tools.py" id="create_agent_with_tools" highlight="4":::

Tip

See the full sample for the complete runnable file.

:::zone-end

Next steps

[!div class="nextstepaction"] Step 3: Multi-Turn Conversations

Go deeper: