# Tool Filtering

> Selecting a small, relevant subset of tools for an agent instead of loading every available tool definition into context.

- Category: Tools & Protocols
- Stage: Rising
- Also called: Tool retrieval, Dynamic tool filtering
- Canonical: https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/tool-filtering

## Plain English

The agent gets the few tools likely to matter, not a giant menu that slows it down and confuses it.

## Example

An MCP gateway exposes only payment-log and incident-search tools for a support query, while hiding unrelated admin tools.

## Why it matters

Large tool catalogs can hurt accuracy, latency, cost, and safety; filtering makes MCP-style integration practical at scale.

## Related

- [Tool Use](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/tool-use)
- [MCP Server](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/mcp-server)
- [Context Engineering](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/context-engineering)

## Sources

- [Redis: MCP Tool Filtering](https://redis.io/blog/from-reasoning-to-retrieval-solving-the-mcp-tool-overload-problem/)
- [OpenAI Agents SDK: MCP](https://openai.github.io/openai-agents-js/guides/mcp/)