> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://alike.help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# MCP tools

> The tools that Alike gives your agent, what each one does, and which ones send to other people.

Your agent chooses and calls these tools. You do not call them yourself. Use this page to understand what your agent does, and to ask for a tool by name.

**Sends** means that the tool delivers something to another person. Alike tells your agent to ask you before it calls a tool that sends. Alike does not block these tools. Only invitations wait on Alike's side until you confirm.

## Start and orient

| Tool | What it does |
| - | - |
| `resolve_work_item` | Links the session to a work item by its branch, pull request, or issue. Returns the brief: decisions, live sessions, and history. Creates the item if it does not exist and you gave a git branch, a GitHub pull request, or a Linear issue. With a description only, it suggests matches and creates nothing |
| `get_briefing` | Your day: plan, open questions, commitments, blockers, and decisions that wait for you. If no plan exists for today, it creates one |
| `suggest_work` | A ranked list of what to work on next, with reasons. You can ask for your own work, your team's work, or both |
| `get_activity_since` | What Alike did for you since a given time |

## Log your own work

These tools change only your own items. The agent calls them without asking you.

| Tool | What it does |
| - | - |
| `create_new_work_focus` | Starts work that has no item in Alike yet. Creates a task and marks it as your current work |
| `set_work_focus` | Marks an existing item as your current work. A focus becomes idle after 5 minutes without activity |
| `end_work_focus` | Ends the current work focus |
| `relate_task` | Links two tasks: subtask of, blocks, blocked by, or same as. **Same as** hides the first task and moves its activity to the second. Only a task that the agent created with `create_new_work_focus` can be hidden this way |
| `record_decision` | Records a decision with its rationale and code anchors. See [Decisions](https://alike.help/use/decisions.md) |
| `create_entity` | Creates a task, project, event, decision, or document. Warns about possible duplicates |
| `update_entity` | Changes an item. For a colleague's item, see [Change a colleague's item](#change-a-colleagues-item) |
| `archive_entity`, `unarchive_entity` | Archives or restores one of your tasks |
| `dismiss_entity` | Hides one of your items, with a reason |
| `share_entity` | Shares one of your items with a person, a group, or the workspace |
| `respond_to_decision` | Confirms or rejects an item that Alike suggested in your briefing |

## Read and search

| Tool | What it does |
| - | - |
| `search_entities` | Finds items by name. Agents call it when you name a task, project, or person |
| `get_entity` | Reads one item. Can include its history, sources, related items, and your colleagues' versions |
| `list_entities` | Lists items of one type |
| `query_entities` | Filters items, for example "overdue tasks". Includes items that Alike found and nobody confirmed yet, unless the agent turns this off |
| `search_environment` | Searches your own sources: past agent sessions, email, messages, meetings, and issues. If some sources are slow, it returns partial results and says which sources are missing |
| `list_entity_kinds`, `describe_entity_kind` | The types of item and the fields that the agent can write |
| `get_blockers` | Your tasks that other people wait for |
| `get_commitments` | Promises that you made or received, and their status |
| `get_actions` | A log of what Alike did for you |
| `get_my_analytics` | Your own builder analytics |

## Your other sessions

These tools work only between your own sessions. They need no confirmation.

| Tool | What it does |
| - | - |
| `list_agent_sessions` | Your live sessions, and colleagues' sessions that are shared with you. You can message only your own sessions |
| `read_agent_session` | Opens one of your own past sessions around a turn, with its tool calls. Takes the `session_id` from a search result or from `list_agent_sessions` |
| `message_agent_session` | Sends a note, a question, or a proposal to one of your live sessions. It arrives at that session's next turn |
| `reply_to_agent_session` | Answers a question or a proposal from one of your sessions |

## Colleagues

| Tool | What it does | Sends |
| - | - | - |
| `list_colleagues` | People in your workspace who use Alike | No |
| `get_colleague` | What a colleague shares, and your notes about them | No |
| `ask_colleague` | Asks a colleague's Alike a question. The answer arrives later | **Yes** |
| `inform_colleague` | Sends a colleague an update. No answer is expected | **Yes** |
| `reply_to_colleague` | Answers, accepts, counters, or declines a colleague's question or proposal | **Yes** |
| `retract_reply` | Withdraws a reply that you sent, so that you can send a new one | Changes what the colleague sees |
| `list_pending_replies` | Questions to you that nobody answered yet | No |
| `list_replies_to_me` | Answers to what you sent, and delivery receipts | No |
| `get_message` | The full text of one message | No |
| `mark_inbound_dismissed` | Hides a message from your list. The sender is not told | No |
| `invite_colleague` | Prepares an email invitation for a person who is not on Alike. Shows you the exact email. Sends nothing until you confirm | **Yes, after you confirm** |
| `confirm_intent` | Sends a prepared action, for example an invitation | **Yes** |
| `cancel_intent` | Cancels a prepared action | No |

## Your settings

| Tool | What it does |
| - | - |
| `get_injection_settings`, `update_injection_settings` | Read and change the context that Alike gives your agents. See [Tune what your agent gets](https://alike.help/use/tune-context.md) |
| `privacy_policy` | Shows, previews, or replaces your sharing policy. A replacement replaces the whole policy |
| `get_my_rules`, `update_my_rules` | Your rules for your Alike assistant, for example "Never schedule meetings on Fridays". These are not privacy settings |

## Key inputs

You do not write tool inputs yourself. But if you know the values, you can ask for them by name. For example: "Search only my past agent sessions."

### Work item anchors

`resolve_work_item` accepts one of three anchor types:

| Anchor type | Example value |
| - | - |
| `git_branch` | `feature/checkout-retry` |
| `github_pr` | `acme/api#412`, or the pull request URL |
| `linear_issue` | `ENG-231`, or the issue URL |

Alike ignores the difference between upper case and lower case in anchors. A pull request or issue anchor links to the task that Alike already made from that pull request or issue, if you [connected the tool](https://alike.help/use/integrations.md). Alike refuses an anchor value that is too long. It does not shorten it.

When the agent links the same session to the same work item again, it gets a short update with what changed, not the full brief. To get the full brief again, for example after the agent's context was compacted, ask: "Get the full Alike brief for this work again."

### Code anchors on a decision

`record_decision` accepts these code anchors: `repository`, `branch`, `pr_number`, `issue_id`, and `paths`. Give all the anchors that you know. See [Decisions](https://alike.help/use/decisions.md).

### Search types

`search_environment` searches all your source types by default. To limit the search, the agent names one or more types, for example `agent_session` for your past sessions. `read_agent_session` opens the transcript of a session result around the matched turn. To read a session's summary item, the agent finds it by title with `query_entities` and reads the item's ID with `get_entity`. See [Search types](https://alike.help/use/integrations.md#how-your-agent-uses-your-tools).

### Details of one item

`get_entity` can add these details to an item:

| Detail | Contents | Works on |
| - | - | - |
| `history` | Each change: who made it, when, and why | Your own items |
| `sources` | Where each fact came from, for example the email, transcript, or issue | Your own items |
| `related` | Linked items | Any item that you can see |
| `others_shared` | What your colleagues' shared versions of the item say | Any item that you can see |

To see where a fact came from, ask: "Where did Alike get this decision from?"

### Reasons to dismiss an item

`dismiss_entity` accepts a reason: `not_relevant`, `duplicate`, `incorrect`, `not_a_task`, `spam`, or `other`. The reasons `incorrect`, `not_a_task`, `spam`, and `not_relevant` also tell Alike that it found the item by mistake.

### Messages and replies

| Tool | Values |
| - | - |
| `message_agent_session` | Message type: `tell`, `ask`, or `propose`. See [Run parallel sessions](https://alike.help/use/parallel-sessions.md) |
| `reply_to_agent_session` | `answer`, `counter`, or `decline` for an ask. `accept`, `counter`, or `decline` for a proposal |
| `reply_to_colleague` | `answer`, `accept`, `counter`, or `decline` |
| `ask_colleague` | Optional expected answer: `boolean` (yes or no), `enum` (one choice from a list), `text`, or `datetime` |

## More tools

Builders do not see these tools at first. To get them, ask your agent: "Call Alike's `get_more_tools`." The agent then lists the tools again. If your client does not refresh its tool list by itself, reconnect the server or restart the client. If the tools disappear later, ask the agent to call `get_more_tools` again.

| Area | Tools |
| - | - |
| Schedule and meetings | `get_schedule`, `get_meetings`, `schedule_meeting` |
| Day plan | `add_task_to_plan`, `remove_task_from_plan`, `accept_pending_task`, `update_task` |
| Calendar events | `add_event_to_plan`, `update_event`, `cancel_event`, `confirm_event_in_plan` |
| Reminders | `create_reminder`, `list_reminders`, `cancel_reminder` |
| Hand off work | `delegate`, `suggest_assignee`, `list_goals`, `get_goal` |
| Assistant questions | `respond_to_ask_user` |

> [!WARNING]
>
> If your calendar is connected, calendar tools change your real calendar. `add_event_to_plan` and `confirm_event_in_plan` can send invitations to attendees. `cancel_event` can notify attendees.

## Change a colleague's item

Your agent cannot change a colleague's item directly. It must choose one of two modes:

* **`suggest_to_owner`**: sends the change to the owner as a proposal. The owner accepts, counters, or declines. This sends a message to the owner.
* **`create_local`**: makes a private copy of the item for you. Nobody else sees the change.

The planning and calendar tools ask for confirmation first when you use them on a colleague's item. With confirmation, they change your private copy.


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