Published: 2026-07-31
Analysis & perspective

How AI agents actually call tools — the model-and-harness handoff

Tech With Tim uses a one-minute explainer to correct a common misconception about agents: the model never reaches out and performs an action itself. It predicts text — so when it wants a tool, it emits a structured, code-like message naming the tool it wants. The software running the model sees that message, executes the real tool, and hands the result back for the model to process. That handoff, Tim argues, is the whole mechanism behind AI agents at scale.

Watch on YouTube → · Agent terminology glossary · ← Back to News

Weekly Digest — In Your Inbox

Get the week's top AI agent news, updates, and guides — every Friday.