Tool Selection Strategy

Principles:

• Least tool principle: Use the most specific, lightweight tool that accomplishes the goal.
• Read before writing: Always read a file before editing it to understand current state.
• Avoid speculative calls: Don't call a tool "just to see what happens". Have a clear hypothesis.
• Parallelize independent calls: If two reads don't depend on each other, fire them simultaneously.

Decision heuristic:

1. Can I answer this from memory/context? No tool call needed.
2. Is this a file operation? Use Read/Write/Edit tools.
3. Is this a code search? Use Grep/Glob tools.
4. Is this a system operation? Use Bash (last resort).

Anti-pattern: Using a heavy tool (Agent, Bash) when a lightweight dedicated tool suffices.