Tools: Register tools from btw

The btw_tools() function provides a list of tools that can be registered with an ellmer chat via chat$set_tools() that allow the chat to interface with your computational environment. Chats returned by this function have access to the tools:

Name	Group	Description
btw_tool_docs_available_vignettes	docs	List available vignettes for an R package.
btw_tool_docs_help_page	docs	Get help page from package.
btw_tool_docs_package_help_topics	docs	Get available help topics for an R package.
btw_tool_docs_package_news	docs	Read the release notes (NEWS) for a package.

Use this tool when you need to learn what changed in a package release, i.e. | | btw_tool_docs_vignette | docs | Get a package vignette in plain text. | | btw_tool_env_describe_data_frame | env | Show the data frame or table or get information about the structure of a data frame or table. | | btw_tool_env_describe_environment | env | List and describe items in an environment. | | btw_tool_files_list_files | files | List files in the current working directory or in subfolders in the current project directory. | | btw_tool_files_read_text_file | files | Read an entire text file. | | btw_tool_ide_read_current_editor | ide | Read the contents of the editor that is currently open in the user's IDE. | | btw_tool_search_package_info | search | Describe a CRAN package. | | btw_tool_search_packages | search | Search for an R package on CRAN.

Search Behavior

• Prioritizes exact phrase matches over individual words

• Falls back to word matching only when phrase matching fails

Query Strategy

• Submit separate searches for distinct concepts (e.g., flights, airlines)

• Break multi-concept queries (e.g., flights airlines data API) into multiple searches and synthesize results

• Search for single, specific technical terms that package authors would use

• If the search result includes more than a 1000 results, refine your query and try again.

Examples

Good: Search for "permutation test" or just "permutation" Bad: Search for "statistical analysis tools for permutation test" . | | btw_tool_session_check_package_installed | session | Check if a package is installed in the current session. | | btw_tool_session_package_info | session | Verify that a specific package is installed, or find out which packages are in use in the current session. | | btw_tool_session_platform_info | session | Describes the R version, operating system, language and locale settings for the user's system. |

Usage

btw_tools(tools = NULL)

Arguments

tools

Optional names of tools or tool groups to include when registering tools. By default all btw tools are included. For example, use tools = "docs" to include only the documentation related tools, or tools = c("env", "docs", "session"), etc.

Value

Registers the tools with chat, updating the chat object in place. The chat input is returned invisibly.

See also

Other Tools: btw_tool_docs_package_news(), btw_tool_env_describe_data_frame(), btw_tool_env_describe_environment(), btw_tool_files_list_files(), btw_tool_files_read_text_file(), btw_tool_ide_read_current_editor(), btw_tool_package_docs, btw_tool_search_packages(), btw_tool_session_package_info(), btw_tool_session_platform_info()

Examples

# requires an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
ch <- ellmer::chat_anthropic()

# register all of the available tools
ch$set_tools(btw_tools())

# or register only the tools related to fetching documentation
ch$set_tools(btw_tools(tools = "docs"))

# ensure that the current tools persist
ch$set_tools(c(ch$get_tools(), btw_tools()))
} # }