Check Tool Readiness Before Assigning Work to an Agent

This guide is for people assigning file, command-line or browser work to an Agent. It explains how to separate what this Agent can do now, what it is allowed to do, and what remains unconfirmed before work begins. First identify a Room that includes the target Agent and the permitted scope of access to your material. This is an operational guide to checking readiness with a small task, not an installation tutorial or a complete tool catalog.

Check current usability, not just a tool name

A Skill bundles procedures and usage guidance that an Agent consults for a particular kind of work. Tools perform actions; a Skill guides when and how to use those tools. The presence of a Skill does not establish that every required program, permission and external connection is ready.

The official Guide says that some Skills and tools are prepared by default, but availability differs by Agent runtime. A lightweight Agent lacks a graphical desktop and some document and media tools. If a Skill requires a particular program or external service, also check the dependencies and credentials specified in its SKILL.md.

Readiness and permission to execute are separate. The Guide’s consumer-availability page asks you to consider tools, file access, AI connections and organizational policy. Seeing a tool does not mean the proposed task is permitted now.

What to check	Evidence to request from the Agent	If something is missing
Tools and programs	Available means and the current check result	Tell the administrator which Agent and task need support
Material access and connections	Whether permitted material can be read and a connection is needed	Confirm location and access scope; request the needed connection without secret values
Execution scope and policy	Permitted actions and actions that will not run	Establish who approves what before proceeding
Deliverable and completion criteria	Expected file, checks and unperformed work	Agree on delivery and test with a small task

This table is a request template. It does not imply that the product has a status screen or automatic checklist with these labels.

Separate the readiness check from the work

A Room is a space where users and Agents collaborate in a shared conversation context. The official Guide directs you to request and confirm work in a Chat Room that includes the target Agent. Conversations in the Cloud Portal’s Agent details is a read-only record, not a request entry point. This article describes the documented Portal roles only; it does not assume that the Agent Control UI has the same menus or a readiness screen.

Start with the intended task and the permitted scope of inspection. Ask the Agent for evidence it checked and items it could not confirm. Do not start from a bare “yes, I can”: distinguish actual access to the required material from changes still needed to make the task possible.

Illustrative example — the requests and results below are fictional, not execution records or product screens. Assume two non-sensitive documents already exist in a permitted workspace.

First check whether this Agent can read the supplied weekly-a.md and weekly-b.md. Report access to both files and the means available to summarize them. Do not modify originals, install, delete or transmit to external services. Stop rather than guess if either file cannot be read.

A filled illustrative readiness response could look like this:

Item	Illustrative check result
Material access	Read both weekly-a.md and weekly-b.md
Available means	Used the currently available file-reading tool to inspect their contents
Changes and connections	Did not change originals, install anything or connect an external service
Remaining work	No summary has been written; waiting for the output filename and scope to be confirmed

If the files and scope are correct, request the actual work:

Summarize only the decisions and open items in the two documents into weekly-summary.md. Identify the source filename for each item and add nothing that is absent from the originals. Do not change originals or transmit to external services. Deliver the result as a Chat artifact or attachment in this Room, and report actual changes and anything you could not verify.

Illustrative result sample: weekly-summary.md contains two items: “Decision: hold the review meeting on Tuesday — source: weekly-a.md” and “Open item: the owner of the next material submission is undecided — source: weekly-b.md.” The Agent reports creating only the summary file, leaving both originals unchanged and making no external-service transmission. These contents and change statements are examples, not execution evidence.

You check success. Open the delivered file, confirm its name and contents, and compare both items with their originals. Check that originals stayed unchanged and no extra files or external actions occurred using the Agent’s change and verification report and permitted inspection methods. If the report is not enough to establish a condition, leave it unverified.

If a file could not be read or a source does not support an item, do not call the task complete. Hold that item, correct the material location or access permission, and check again. A missing tool does not automatically expand the request to permit installation or sending material to another service.

Describe the required work before changing the runtime

An image is the base environment bundle in which an Agent runs. The official Guide describes browser control on full images and command-line interface (CLI) work on full or lite images. Lite lacks Chromium, a graphical desktop and display-access components such as VNC/noVNC, so it is not the choice for graphical browser work.

The platform super administrator controls image selection; an available full image is selected by default for ordinary users. If a created Agent uses lite or the browser readiness check fails, give the platform super administrator the target Agent and required task when requesting an adjustment. The full label alone does not guarantee access to a particular website or a connected work account.

The Guide says that the cli-anything Skill is included in both full and lite images. This does not mean every particular program or external service is ready. Read the individual Skill’s requirements alongside the current Agent’s check results.

Do not conclude that a capability is impossible merely because it is absent from the documentation. The consumer-availability Guide says it is not a complete tool or permission inventory: the current Agent may assess what it can safely verify within user permissions and organizational policy. Conversely, a documented capability is not confirmed executable until current readiness is checked. If installation or removal is needed, first establish the currently supported procedure and authority. This article does not provide installation or removal steps.

State the boundaries for secrets and external actions

Handle credentials through your organization’s approved connection and storage procedures. Do not copy secret values into Skill packages or shared conversations. Ask readiness reports to state whether a connection is needed and what was confirmed, not the secret itself.

The official Guide says to name consequential actions explicitly and request confirmation before execution: deletion commands (rm), credential changes, package installation, deployment, Git push and external API calls. An API call sends a request to another service. Also define immediate pre-execution confirmation for payments, account changes, message sending and file uploads or downloads. Request wording does not replace organizational permission policy or actual access controls.

Browser work needs an additional boundary. The Guide says Cloud does not provide the full lifecycle for creating, selecting and withdrawing dedicated browser profiles. Treat existing login state, cookies and downloaded files as sensitive; do not share a personal browser profile or password manager.

Request results as Chat artifacts or Chat/Task attachments and check filenames and contents. An artifact is a deliverable that can be inspected separately from the conversation. The Guide explicitly says that a customer route for previewing or downloading Agent workspace files directly through Portal Documents has not been confirmed. Do not expand that statement into a claim that all file-delivery methods are unavailable. Dispose of unneeded sensitive outputs according to organizational retention policy.

Choose the next check instead of assuming a cause

When sharing a failure, start with the step performed, target URL or permitted workspace path, a non-sensitive error summary and Agent status. Redact sensitive identifiers even in paths or URLs. Do not share secret values, browser cookies or full terminal logs.

Missing tools, access permissions, connection state, policy and request scope are different things to investigate. A single error does not establish which one caused the failure. Pick one task you want to assign today and first ask for what is ready, what remains unconfirmed and the next action. Keep that answer and the small deliverable check as the basis of your team’s next request template.

Sources

• ClawPod Guide — Skills and Tools: runtime differences, work scope and secret boundaries.
• ClawPod Guide — Asking an Agent for Browser and CLI Work: image conditions, additional requirements, pre-execution confirmation, delivery and failure reports.
• ClawPod Guide — Consumer Availability: tools, permissions, connections, policy and the limits of documentation coverage.
• ClawPod Guide — Working with an Agent in a Chat Room: the role of Rooms, request contents and deliverable checks.