---
name: tool-governance
description: Tool registry, capability checks, and fallback handling for the orchestrator agent.
tags: ['management', 'tools', 'registry']
---

# Tool Governance

## Purpose
Maintain a registry of available tools, verify capabilities before use, and define fallback behavior when a tool is unavailable.

## When to Use
- Before invoking any tool for the first time
- When a tool returns an unexpected error
- When the agent needs to discover what tools exist
- During phase transitions

## When Not to Use
- For well-known core tools (terminal, browser, code execution)
- For tools just confirmed working in this session

## Procedure: Tool Discovery
1. Use the `tool_registry` plugin tool to list available tools
2. Read tool documentation from help/<topic>/help.md
3. Note required inputs, expected outputs, error modes

## Procedure: Capability Check
1. Verify the tool exists in registry
2. Verify all required inputs are available
3. Verify the tool is enabled (not toggled off)
4. If any check fails: see Fallback

## Procedure: Fallback
- Tool not found: use `capability_check` to find closest alternative
- Tool disabled: ask user to enable or use alternative
- Tool errors persistently: delegate to test_debug_engineer for diagnosis

## See Also
- Plugin tool: `tool_registry`
- Plugin tool: `capability_check`