Knowledge supplies facts, a skill describes a procedure, a tool performs a specific operation, and a connection provides an authorized route to a system. These parts work together but do different jobs.
Northstar Supplies submits a vendor onboarding packet. Procurement asks for a review using the approved checklist and current vendor record, a flag for missing evidence, and a draft document request for review. In this fictional example, the checklist requires a current insurance certificate, but the packet does not include one. A person must review and send the request; the agent does not approve the vendor.
Follow one request through the four parts
- Knowledge: The approved onboarding checklist states that a current insurance certificate is required. Procurement owns the checklist and keeps it current.
- Skill: The procedure compares the intake packet and current vendor record with the checklist, identifies missing evidence, drafts a request, and stops for human review. It does not grant access by itself.
- Tool: A read-only vendor-record lookup retrieves the current record for comparison. It cannot approve the vendor or send a request.
- Connection: An authorized, read-only connection gives that lookup access to the vendor-record system. The connection is limited to the access procurement has granted.
Illustrative result for fictional Northstar Supplies records:
Review draft: Northstar Supplies
- Finding: A current insurance certificate is missing from the intake packet.
- Draft request: “Please provide a current insurance certificate so procurement can continue its review.”
- State: No vendor approval made; a person must review and send the request.
If the vendor record or packet cannot be read, or the sources conflict, the agent should identify what it could not verify and leave the decision to procurement.
Policy, procedure, lookup, and authorized access.
Choose only what the task needs
Keep the task small, then choose the resources needed to produce a useful result:
Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
| If the job needs... | Choose... | Check before use |
|---|---|---|
| Approved facts or records | Knowledge | Name the source and owner; confirm its scope and freshness. |
| A repeatable method and stop rules | A skill | State the steps and what to do when evidence is missing or conflicts. |
| A specific operation, such as a lookup or update | A tool | Define its permitted action, side effects, and any approval needed. |
| A route to another system | A connection | Confirm the calling identity and the access the system owner actually granted. |
More documents do not automatically make knowledge more useful, and a prompt asking for care is not a substitute for a system permission. Test missing, stale, and unexpected data. Where practical, pass only the necessary information between steps and use structured fields; these practices reduce some risks but cannot guarantee correctness.
For product-specific context, see AgentShelf’s knowledge, tools, and automation overview. Continue with human review and escalation, agent permissions and boundaries, and agent evaluation.