Lazy Discovery

Manowar gives every agent a small default capability surface:

Use query_catalog when the tool family is unclear. Use models_call for media generation. Use connectors_find for external accounts. Use search_call for current facts. Use agent_find for agent discovery. Use swarm_propose to draft and submit a multi-agent plan.

The agent sees a few entry points first. It asks those entry points for the exact connector, model, agent, or search backend only when the task needs one.

Surface Tools

Tool	Discovers or runs	Backing service
`connectors_find`	One MCP connector	`CONNECTORS_URL /mcps/search`
`swarm_propose`	One typed MAL plan	In-process harness interpreter
`agent_find`	One registered agent	`API_URL /agents/search`
`swarm_delegate`	One registered agent call	Harness subagent engine
`models_call`	One model call	`MODELS_URL /search`, then internal inference
`search_call`	One web search	Perplexity, OpenAI, or Gemini backends

Why It Matters

The model catalog, connector catalog, agent index, and tool schemas can be large. Dumping them into every prompt wastes tokens and makes tool selection worse. Lazy discovery keeps the prompt stable and asks the owning service for ranked candidates.

Tool Result Budgets

Tool results are compacted before returning to the model. Defaults live in harness/tools/index.ts:

Env var	Default
`AGENT_TOOL_RESULT_MAX_CHARS`	`1800`
`AGENT_TOOL_RESULT_ARRAY_ITEMS`	`3`
`AGENT_TOOL_RESULT_OBJECT_KEYS`	`12`
`AGENT_TOOL_RESULT_STRING_CHARS`	`240`
`AGENT_TOOL_RESULT_MAX_DEPTH`	`5`

Large JSON results are shortened with explicit __compose_truncated metadata so the model knows the result was compacted.

Comparison

System	Discovery style	Manowar style
OpenAI Agents SDK	Tools are supplied by the app in code.	Default tools discover service-owned catalogs on demand.
OpenClaw	Gateway and plugins expose channel and capability surfaces.	Manowar exposes Compose services through compact runtime tools.
LangGraph	Nodes choose from state and tool bindings defined by the graph.	The native loop keeps a small tool surface and lets ranked services expand it.

Overview

Memory

Harness

Tools

Surface Tools

Why It Matters

Tool Result Budgets

Comparison

​Surface Tools

​Why It Matters

​Tool Result Budgets

​Comparison

​Related

Surface Tools

Why It Matters

Tool Result Budgets

Comparison

Related