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ADR-029 β€” Tool execution runtime architecture

Status: Superseded by ADR-046 (2026-08-05)
Originally accepted: 2026-06-04

The current tool contract is intentionally small:

  • Hermes owns tool selection, discovery, invocation, and result handling.
  • Normal/native tools are primary. This includes terminal, filesystem, Chromium/browser, direct network/web, image providers, and the normal git CLI implemented by runners/hermes-binary/worker/hypersh-git over AgentFS.
  • MCP adds a capability only when no normal tool provides it. Humanwork KB and tenant-connected business systems are examples.
  • Humanwork does not inject a tool manifest or capability prose into the user message, task-classify a per-turn subset, or require approval/review before a normal or MCP tool call.
  • MCP routing authenticates the tenant and resolves the configured connection; execution and audit records do not become permission or delivery gates.
  • Hermes progressively discloses nonessential native, plugin, and MCP schemas so capabilities remain reachable without sending the whole catalog on every model call.

The former four-layer manifest/policy/approval design and its failure-mode catalog are retained only in Git history. They are not current architecture.