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AI agent tools

AI agent tools give your agents practical capabilities beyond text generation, like searching documents, querying databases, calling REST APIs, or executing custom code.

Use pre-configured managed MCP servers for immediate access to Databricks data, use external MCP servers to connect to third-party APIs, or build custom tools for specialized business logic.

Explore these common tool patterns and implementation examples:

Use case Recommended approach
Work with structured data Read structured data in Unity Catalog tables.
Retrieve unstructured data Connect agents to vector search indexes to query unstructured data.
Connect to external MCP servers Securely connect to MCP servers outside of Databricks to query external APIs and access third-party MCP tools.
Run custom business logic Build a custom MCP server with your own tools.
AI tools using Unity Catalog functions (legacy) Legacy, no longer recommended.