Tool Collections and MCP — How Agents Get Their Tools
Agents are useful because they can do things, not just talk. The set of things they can do comes from tools — and the platform offers several ways to give agents tools without you having to manage each one individually.
The three layers
There are three sources of tools, listed in order of how much setup they require:
- Official tool-collections — curated bundles maintained by the platform; agents auto-bind to relevant collections based on their role
- Admin-curated MCP catalog — vetted third-party MCP servers you can enable in one click
- Custom MCP servers — your own MCP server (private to you or shared across your organization)
You can mix and match — use official tool-collections as a baseline, layer the curated catalog for common integrations, and reach for custom MCP when you need something specific.
Official tool-collections
A tool-collection is a bundle of related tools that ship together. Examples:
- Research — web search, page fetching, PDF reading, screenshot capture
- Data — CSV/JSON manipulation, table reshaping, basic stats
- Files — Library reads/writes, format conversion, archive handling
- Communication — email composition, SMS (Pro+), calendar lookups
- Image — background eraser, format conversion, image-toolkit primitives
Each agent has a role. When the platform sees an agent whose role includes "research," it auto-binds the Research collection without you having to think about it. If you want different defaults, you can override per agent.
The curated MCP catalog
For widely-used third-party services, the catalog is the fastest route:
- One-click enable — pick a server from the catalog and it's ready
- Vetted — every server in the catalog has been reviewed for security and stability
- OAuth handled — if the server requires sign-in, the OAuth flow is built in and the token is stored in the Credential Vault
- Transport reconnect — long-running connections drop sometimes; the platform retries silently and resyncs OAuth tokens when needed
If a service you want isn't in the catalog yet, request it in the Community Feature Requests channel.
Custom MCP servers
When you need something the catalog doesn't have — an internal tool, a private API, a one-off integration — you can register your own MCP server.
- Private (per-user) — only you can use it
- Organization-owned — register once at the organization level; share with the right access controls
- Remote (SSE) or local (STDIO) — both transports supported
Organization-owned MCP is the right answer when your team needs the same internal tool. Register once, set permissions, and everyone in the org can bind it to their agents.
Access controls
A few things to keep in mind for safety:
- Local MCP servers run with your machine's permissions; only register local servers from sources you trust
- Remote MCP servers go through SSRF protection — private IPs are blocked unless you're on a self-hosted setup
- Credentials are encrypted at rest in the Credential Vault and only decrypted when an agent uses the tool
- Destructive tools prompt for confirmation before they run
When to use what
| Need |
Best fit |
| Common capabilities every agent could want |
Official tool-collection |
| Popular third-party service (Linear, GitHub, etc.) |
Curated MCP catalog |
| Internal company tool |
Organization-owned custom MCP |
| Personal experimental tool |
Private custom MCP |