Built-in tools

Every tool goes through the same text-parsed grammar, whether it’s a built-in or an MCP tool. The permission category determines when a call prompts - see Permission modes.

Tool	Category	Description
read_file	read	Read a file’s contents. Reads within cwd never prompt; a path outside cwd or a secret file always does.
write_file	write	Create or overwrite a file.
edit_file	write	Exact-match search/replace. Fails closed if the match isn’t unique.
bash	execute	Run a shell command in cwd (PowerShell on Windows).
grep	read	Search file contents by regex, recursively. Skips node_modules, .git, dist, and secret files.
glob	read	Find files by glob pattern. Same skip list as grep.
web_fetch	network	Fetch a URL and return its text, stripped of HTML.
web_search	network	Query-based web search - configurable backend, DuckDuckGo by default.
task	execute	Delegate a sub-task to a nested sub-agent.
exit_plan_mode	(read)	Only offered in plan mode - presents a plan for approval.
ask_user_question	(read)	Ask a multiple-choice clarifying question. Unavailable in -p mode.

Plans on disk

Every plan the model proposes via exit_plan_mode is saved to ~/.polyglot/plans/<timestamp>-<session-id>.md, whether or not you approve it - a durable record of what was proposed. Not written when the session is ephemeral.