Agent Adapter
An interface layer connecting an agent's tool-calling protocol to heterogeneous external tools, normalizing their schemas into one the agent expects.
Problem
Heterogeneous tools force the agent to handle multiple calling conventions or restrict to one ecosystem. Without an adapter pattern, integration with each new tool ecosystem is bespoke. Differs from tool-discovery (finding tools) and tool-loadout (curating) — adapter normalizes the *interface* to the tools the agent has already found and selected.
Solution
Define a canonical agent-facing tool schema (input fields, output schema, error model). Per external tool ecosystem (REST, gRPC, MCP, library, CLI), implement an adapter that translates {canonical request → native call} and {native response → canonical response}. Agent calls canonical interface only. Pair with mcp, tool-discovery, tool-loadout, agent-computer-interface.
When to use
- Agent uses tools from multiple ecosystems.
- Per-ecosystem schemas vary enough to warrant normalization.
- Adapter-maintenance burden is acceptable.
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