Cortex Code CLI agent tools

Cortex Code has access to a comprehensive set of tools for file operations, shell commands, Web access, and more. You don’t need to install anything extra; these tools are built into Cortex Code CLI and ready to use. Cortex Code automatically uses appropriate tools based on your requests. You do not need to invoke them manually; just describe what you want. For example:

Read the first 10 lines of the file src/main.py
Search for TODO comments in all Python files
Execute a bash command to list running processes
Copy

When creating custom skills, you must specify the tools the skill can use. See Skills.

File tools

Read

Read file contents from the local filesystem. Supports:

  • Text files with line numbers

  • Images (PNG, JPG, etc.) - displayed visually

  • PDFs - page-by-page extraction

  • Jupyter notebooks - cells with outputs

  • Line ranges: @file.py$10-20

Write

Create or overwrite files. Supports:

  • Creates parent directories automatically

  • Tracks line changes for session statistics

  • Overwrites existing files

Edit

Search and replace in files. Supports:

  • Exact string replacement

  • Diff preview before changes

  • Supports replace_all for global replacement

Glob

Find files by pattern matching. Examples:

Pattern

Description

**/*.py

All Python files

src/**/*.ts

TypeScript files in src/ directory

**/test_*.py

Python test files

!node_modules

Exclude patterns

Grep

Search file contents using a regular expression. Supports:

  • Recursive search

  • Regex patterns

  • Binary file detection

  • Output modes: content, files, count

Shell tools

Bash

Execute shell commands. Supports:

  • Streaming output

  • Background execution (run_in_background)

  • Timeout control (default 2 min, max 10 min)

  • Sandbox runtime support

BashOutput

Retrieve output from a background shell process.

  • Filter output by regex

  • Status checking

  • Use with run_in_background

KillShell

Terminate running background shells.

Agent tools

RunSubagent

Launch subagents for specialized tasks. Types:

  • general-purpose: All tools, research tasks

  • Explore: Fast codebase exploration

  • Plan: Architecture and planning

  • Custom agents from .cortex/agents/

See Subagents for details.

AskUserQuestion

Prompt user for input during execution. Supports:

  • Multiple choice questions

  • Free-form input

  • Multi-select options

Review

Launch a review subagent for quality assurance.

Web tools

WebSearch

Search the Web using multiple engines. Supports:

  • Fallback search engines

  • Snippet extraction

  • Result caching

  • 30-second timeout

WebFetch

Retrieve content from web URLs. Supports:

  • HTML to text conversion

  • Content extraction

  • Max 10,000 characters

  • 30-second timeout

Snowflake tools

SnowflakeSqlExecute

Execute SQL queries on Snowflake. Supports:

  • Permission checks

  • Result caching

  • Token refresh

  • Large result offloading

SnowflakeObjectSearch

Semantic search for database objects.

Searches

tables, viewss, schemas, databases, functions

Returns

names, columns, descriptions

SnowflakeProductDocs

Search Snowflake documentation. Supported categories:

  • User guide

  • SQL reference

  • Developer guide

  • Cortex Code topics

ReflectSemanticModel

Validate Cortex Analyst semantic models. Validation stages:

  • File existence

  • YAML syntax

  • Schema validation

  • Server-side validation

SnowflakeMultiCortexAnalyst

Execute Cortex Analyst queries. Supports:

  • Natural language to SQL

  • Semantic model support

  • Verified Query Retrieval

Data tools

DataDiff

Compare data between databases/tables. Supports:

  • Snowflake connection handling

  • Account identifier derivation

  • 300-second timeout

NotebookExecute

Execute Jupyter notebooks. Supports:

  • Timeout control

  • Kernel management

  • Parameter injection

  • Custom Python environments

NotebookEdit

Edit Jupyter notebook cells. Supported modes:

  • replace: Replace cell content

  • insert: Add new cell

  • delete: Remove cell

Plan mode tools

EnterPlanMode

Request plan mode for complex tasks. Supports:

  • User approval workflow

  • Automatic invocation for multi-step tasks

ExitPlanMode

Present plan to user and exit plan mode. Supports:

  • Plan confirmation

  • Streaming control

Memory tools

Memory

Store and retrieve information across sessions. Supported commands:

  • view: See stored memories

  • create: Store new memory

  • str_replace: Update memory

  • insert: Add to memory

  • delete: Remove memory

  • rename: Rename memory file

Note

The Memory tool must be enabled by setting the CORTEX_ENABLE_MEMORY environment variable.

Permission levels

Tools have different permission requirements:

Level

Tools

Behavior

Safe

Read, Glob, Grep

Auto-approved

Low

Write (new files)

Usually auto-approved

Medium

Edit, Bash (safe)

Prompts in Confirm mode

High

Bash (risky), SQL write

Always prompts

Critical

rm -rf, sudo

Extra confirmation

See Security for details.

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