Hive separates skills—reusable instructions and operating knowledge—from tools, which can act on files, services, and other agents.
Built-in tool groups
| Group | Typical capabilities |
|---|---|
agent_tools |
Create, update, and ask agents |
memory |
Save durable agent memory |
sandbox |
Shell, Python, file I/O, and managed servers |
web_search |
Search and retrieve public web information |
colony_tools |
Coordinate Colony work and handoffs |
media |
Host-side local image and speech generation |
Grant only what a role needs. Tool availability is part of a Staff profile or agent configuration and remains distinct from model selection.
Skills
A skill gives an agent a repeatable method, domain vocabulary, constraints, and supporting resources. Attach skills when the same instructions would otherwise be copied into many prompts. Keep the system prompt focused on role and policy; put detailed procedures in skills.
Good skills are:
- narrow enough to trigger for a recognizable task
- explicit about prerequisites, inputs, and completion evidence
- careful about mutations and external side effects
- backed by examples or scripts when consistency matters
MCP servers
Model Context Protocol servers expose external tools. Hive supports:
- stdio servers, launched as child processes
- HTTP servers, reached at a configured endpoint
Common integrations include filesystem, git, GitHub, search, databases, and messaging systems.
Configure safely
- Add the MCP server and choose stdio or HTTP.
- Define its command or endpoint.
- Use environment references for secrets rather than literal credential values.
- Test the connection.
- Assign the server only to the Staff profiles or agents that need it.
- Run a harmless read operation before granting mutation authority.
npx or uvx must be available when a configured stdio server depends on them. A Docker sandbox has no network access by default, so networked tools may require HIVE_SANDBOX_NETWORK=bridge. Read the security guide before enabling it.
Media tools
Image and speech generation run host-side rather than inside the agent sandbox. Configure the local media model settings in Hive, then grant the media tool group. Agents should call generate_image or generate_speech directly; they should not install model runtimes inside sandbox containers.