Items related to USB-C for Agents: AI Agent Tool Use, Function Calling,...
USB-C for Agents: AI Agent Tool Use, Function Calling, and MCP Servers Done Right (Build Agents You Can Trust) - Softcover
Synopsis
The agent is only as good as its tools.
You ship production systems. You are new to agents. And the agent that aced every demo just went live and called the refund tool with a customer's order ID in the amount field. It passes garbage arguments, loops on an error it cannot read, and burns ten thousand tokens on work one function should have handled. You blame the model. It was never the model.
A huge fraction of agent quality lives in the layer most engineers treat as plumbing: the tools you expose and the way you describe them. USB-C for Agents treats that layer as the product. Get it right and an average model becomes a reliable agent. Get it wrong and no frontier model will save you.
A hands-on function calling and tool use guide for engineers who ship to production:
- Function calling from the wire up: how tool use actually works, why MCP, the Model Context Protocol, won as the open standard, and what an MCP server done right looks like.
- A tool description is a user interface that happens to be read by a model. Learn to write the ones that end garbage arguments.
- Designing tools for LLM agents that survive loops and retries, with honest error feedback the agent can actually act on.
- Sandboxed code execution that cuts agent token costs by orders of magnitude on measured workloads.
- First-call tool-success rate, the recurring metric that tells you whether the connection improved, not just the model.
- Trust you can ship: audit trails, provenance, and an autonomy slider, plus the tradeoff faced head-on, since every guardrail that makes a tool safe also narrows what the agent may do alone.
Written by an engineer learning this frontier in the open against retail-scale systems, APIs, and messy data. Read it and you will stop tuning prompts and start engineering the connection, turn integration from afterthought into your unfair advantage, and build AI agents that work on the first call. Reliable agent quality is integration engineering, not model magic.
For backend and platform engineers exposing real systems, APIs, and data to AI agents. Part of the Build Agents You Can Trust series, in The Verifier's Library.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Search results for USB-C for Agents: AI Agent Tool Use, Function Calling,...
Stock Image
USB-C for Agents: AI Agent Tool Use, Function Calling, and MCP Servers Done Right (Build Agents You Can Trust)
Print on DemandSeller: California Books, Miami, FL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. Print on Demand. Seller Inventory # I-9798181922983
Stock Image
USB-C for Agents
Seller: PBShop.store US, Wood Dale, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # L2-9798181922983
Stock Image
USB-C for Agents (Paperback)
Print on DemandSeller: Grand Eagle Retail, Bensenville, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The agent is only as good as its tools.You ship production systems. You're new to agents. And the agent that aced every demo just went live and called the refund tool with a customer's order ID in the amount field. It passes garbage arguments, loops forever on an error it can't read, and burns ten thousand tokens to do what one function should have handled. You blame the model. It isn't the model.A huge fraction of agent quality lives in the layer most engineers treat as plumbing: the tools you expose and the way you describe them. Get that layer right and an "average" model becomes a reliable agent. Get it wrong and no frontier model will save you.This hands-on flagship teaches you to build that layer. You will learn how function calling actually works, why MCP won as the open standard, and why a tool description is a user interface that happens to be read by a model. You will design tools for loops, retries, and honest error feedback; run code execution in a sandbox to cut token costs by orders of magnitude on measured workloads; and ship audit trails, provenance, and an autonomy slider that earns trust. You will face the real tradeoff head-on: every guardrail you add to make a tool safe also narrows what the agent may do alone.Written by an engineer learning this frontier in the open against retail-scale systems, APIs, and messy data, it turns integration from afterthought into your unfair advantage. Stop tuning prompts. Start engineering the connection. Build agents that work on the first call.Read chapter one free with Look Inside.Part of the Build Agents You Can Trust series, in The Verifier's Library. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9798181922983
Stock Image
USB-C for Agents
Seller: PBShop.store UK, Fairford, GLOS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # L2-9798181922983
Buy New
£ 21.40
£ 3.29 shipping
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Quantity: Over 20 available
Stock Image
USB-C for Agents (Paperback)
Print on DemandSeller: CitiRetail, Stevenage, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The agent is only as good as its tools.You ship production systems. You're new to agents. And the agent that aced every demo just went live and called the refund tool with a customer's order ID in the amount field. It passes garbage arguments, loops forever on an error it can't read, and burns ten thousand tokens to do what one function should have handled. You blame the model. It isn't the model.A huge fraction of agent quality lives in the layer most engineers treat as plumbing: the tools you expose and the way you describe them. Get that layer right and an "average" model becomes a reliable agent. Get it wrong and no frontier model will save you.This hands-on flagship teaches you to build that layer. You will learn how function calling actually works, why MCP won as the open standard, and why a tool description is a user interface that happens to be read by a model. You will design tools for loops, retries, and honest error feedback; run code execution in a sandbox to cut token costs by orders of magnitude on measured workloads; and ship audit trails, provenance, and an autonomy slider that earns trust. You will face the real tradeoff head-on: every guardrail you add to make a tool safe also narrows what the agent may do alone.Written by an engineer learning this frontier in the open against retail-scale systems, APIs, and messy data, it turns integration from afterthought into your unfair advantage. Stop tuning prompts. Start engineering the connection. Build agents that work on the first call.Read chapter one free with Look Inside.Part of the Build Agents You Can Trust series, in The Verifier's Library. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9798181922983
Buy New
£ 24.49
£ 37 shipping
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Ships from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
USB-C for Agents : AI Agent Tool Use, Function Calling, and MCP Servers Done Right
Seller: AHA-BUCH GmbH, Einbeck, Germany
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - The agent is only as good as its tools.You ship production systems. You're new to agents. And the agent that aced every demo just went live and called the refund tool with a customer's order ID in the amount field. It passes garbage arguments, loops forever on an error it can't read, and burns ten thousand tokens to do what one function should have handled. You blame the model. It isn't the model.A huge fraction of agent quality lives in the layer most engineers treat as plumbing: the tools you expose and the way you describe them. Get that layer right and an 'average' model becomes a reliable agent. Get it wrong and no frontier model will save you.This hands-on flagship teaches you to build that layer. You will learn how function calling actually works, why MCP won as the open standard, and why a tool description is a user interface that happens to be read by a model. You will design tools for loops, retries, and honest error feedback; run code execution in a sandbox to cut token costs by orders of magnitude on measured workloads; and ship audit trails, provenance, and an autonomy slider that earns trust. You will face the real tradeoff head-on: every guardrail you add to make a tool safe also narrows what the agent may do alone.Written by an engineer learning this frontier in the open against retail-scale systems, APIs, and messy data, it turns integration from afterthought into your unfair advantage. Stop tuning prompts. Start engineering the connection. Build agents that work on the first call.Read chapter one free with Look Inside.Part of the Build Agents You Can Trust series, in The Verifier's Library. Seller Inventory # 9798181922983