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How-to · Tools and permissions

Find out what a tool does

Read what a built-in tool or an MCP tool actually does before deciding anything about it.

You see a tool named somewhere — a permission ask, a debug card, a switch — and want to know what it does.

For a built-in tool:

1. Open Settings, the Claude tab, and scroll to Tools.
2. Read the description under the tool's own label.
3. Point at the row to read the underlying tool names in a tooltip.

For an MCP tool, from a mode or an external server:

1. Open Help. It opens on MCP tools.
2. Find the server the tool belongs to, and read the tool's description under its name.

Neither list offers a search of its own. The Help browser's own filter narrows the section tree by page title and heading, not by an individual tool's name.

See Built-in tools and The MCP tool catalogue for what each field on these screens means.