Tools

Tools are executable scripts the LLM can call to interact with your environment. The server spawns each tool as a child process, sends arguments as JSON via stdin, and reads the JSON result from stdout.

Two Categories

Downloadable tools are distributed from a remote registry and installed to ~/.jean2/tools/. These include the 12 built-in tools Jean2 ships with. Each tool provides packages for both Bun and Node.js — the install script picks the best available runtime automatically.

Built-in binary tools are compiled directly into the server binary and are always available:

• task — spawns subagent sessions using preconfigs (orchestration/delegation)
• skills — discovers and loads SKILL.md prompt files from the workspace
• mcp — connects to external MCP servers (local via command, remote via URL)

These three are covered in their own sections and are not installable or removable.

Built-In Tools

All 12 tools are tagged recommended and are installed automatically during jean2 init.

File operations

Tool	Description
read-file	Read files or list directories. Supports offset/limit for large files. Returns line-numbered content.
write-file	Write content to a file (creates or overwrites). Prefer edit for existing files.
edit	String replacements with fuzzy matching. Strategies: exact, line_start, line_end, partial, multi_line.
multiedit	Multiple atomic replacements in a single file — all succeed or none are applied.
apply-patch	Apply unified diff patches to files atomically (standard git diff format).

Search & navigation

Tool	Description
glob	Find files matching glob patterns. Returns paths sorted by modification time.
grep	Search file contents with regex. Returns file paths, line numbers, and matching content.
ls	List directory contents with tree formatting. Auto-hides common directories (node_modules, .git, etc.).

Execution & networking

Tool	Description
shell	Execute arbitrary shell commands. Supports cwd parameter for working directory. ⚠ Marked as dangerous — subject to approval prompts.
webfetch	Fetch URLs and convert to markdown, text, or HTML. Large responses are persisted to disk.

Session management

Tool	Description
todoread	Read the task list for the current session.
todowrite	Write/replace the task list. Tracks status (pending, in_progress, completed, cancelled).

Security

Tools with security checks prompt for user approval before executing sensitive operations — for example, running shell commands or writing files outside the workspace. You can choose "always allow" to cache permissions per workspace.

Managing Tools

# List available and installed tools
jean2 tools list

# Only show installed tools
jean2 tools list --installed

# JSON output
jean2 tools list --json

# Show extension and env config details
jean2 tools list --extensions

# Install tools
jean2 tools install              # Interactive selection
jean2 tools install --recommended  # Install recommended set
jean2 tools install --all        # Install all available tools
jean2 tools install glob grep    # Install specific tools

# Update tools
jean2 tools update               # Update all installed tools
jean2 tools update --dry-run     # Preview updates

# Remove tools
jean2 tools remove shell         # Remove a specific tool
jean2 tools remove --all         # Remove all tools

# Check for updates
jean2 tools outdated

You can also manage tools manually by adding or removing folders in ~/.jean2/tools/.