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Give an agent a Model Context Protocol tool by binding an MCP server to its AgentTemplate.

A system prompt tells an agent how to behave. Tools tell it what it can do. This guide binds a Model Context ProtocolModel Context ProtocolAn open protocol for exposing tools and resources to a model. kagent reaches an MCP server through a RemoteMCPServer resource, and an AgentTemplate binds individual tools from it.Learn more (MCP) tool to the agent that you built in Your first agent, so that the agent can read live data out of your cluster instead of answering from the model alone. For the full tool bindingTool bindingOne entry in an AgentTemplate's spec.tools list. Each binding selects exactly one source: tools from a Model Context Protocol server, or another AgentTemplate used as a tool.Learn more schema, including binding one agent as another agent’s tool, see About tools.

Before you begin

1. Complete Your first agent. This guide edits the my-first-agent AgentTemplate that the agent guide creates, so keep that AgentTemplate and the my-first-harness Harness in place.

2. Confirm that you have the kagent CLI and jq installed.

Bind the tool to your AgentTemplate

kagent ships an MCP server of its own, and installs a RemoteMCPServer that points at it, so the built-in server is the shortest path to a working tool. An AgentTemplateAgentTemplateA Kubernetes custom resource defining what an agent does: its model, system prompt, tools, skills, and plugins. It runs only once a Harness accepts it.Learn more takes tools through an mcp binding, which names one server and, optionally, the tools to take from it. This guide names the tools specifically, so that the agent gets only the two tools it needs rather than the server’s whole catalog.

kagent records what it discovered on the server’s status, so the tool names come from the cluster. This guide binds k8s_get_resources and k8s_get_pod_logs. For the full catalog that the built-in server serves, see the tools ecosystem reference.

1. List the RemoteMCPServersRemoteMCPServerA Kubernetes custom resource pointing at a Model Context Protocol server that the cluster can reach. It is the only server kind that an AgentTemplate tool binding accepts.Learn more in the kagent namespace.

   kubectl get remotemcpserver -n kagent

   Example output: The ACCEPTED column reports whether kagent reached the server and read its catalog. No tool can be bound from a server that is not True.

   NAME                 PROTOCOL          URL                                   ACCEPTED   AGE
   kagent-tool-server   STREAMABLE_HTTP   http://kagent-tools.kagent:8084/mcp   True       14m
   

   To see the tools that the server offers, read the discovered set from its status.

   kubectl get remotemcpserver kagent-tool-server -n kagent \
     -o jsonpath='{range .status.discoveredTools[*]}{.name}{"\t"}{.description}{"\n"}{end}'

   Note

   The built-in server is installed only when the kagent-tools.enabled Helm value is true, which is the default. If the command returns no resources, either re-install with that value enabled, or use your own server as described in Bind your own MCP server.

2. Re-apply the my-first-agent AgentTemplate with a spec.tools list and a system prompt that tells the model what the tools are for.

   kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
   apiVersion: kagent.dev/v1alpha3
   kind: AgentTemplate
   metadata:
     name: my-first-agent
     namespace: kagent
     labels:
       kagent.dev/harness: my-first-harness
   spec:
     description: My first kagent agent
     modelConfig:
       name: default-model-config
     systemPrompt: |-
       You are a concise, helpful assistant with read access to a Kubernetes cluster.
       Use your tools to answer questions about what is running in the cluster.
       When a question cannot be answered from the tools that you have, say so.
     tools:
       - mcp:
           server:
             kind: RemoteMCPServer
             name: kagent-tool-server
           tools:
             - k8s_get_resources
             - k8s_get_pod_logs
   EOF

   Field	Description
   mcp.server.kind	The kind of server resource. RemoteMCPServer is the only accepted value.
   mcp.server.name	The server’s name. A binding resolves in the AgentTemplate’s own namespace, so it cannot reach a server in another namespace.
   mcp.tools	Optional. The names of the tools to bind, up to 50. An omitted or empty list exposes every tool on the server. An AgentTemplate takes at most 50 bindings in total.

3. Confirm that kagent compiled a new revisionRevisionThe compiled, immutable output of one Harness and AgentTemplate pairing, identified by a content digest. An AgentInstance runs the revision it was created from for its whole life, so editing either resource affects only instances created afterward. for the edited AgentTemplate. Every edit produces a new desired revision, and the pair is current when the latest successful revision matches it.

   kubectl get agenttemplate my-first-agent -n kagent \
     -o jsonpath='{range .status.harnesses[*]}{.harness}{"\t"}{.desiredRevision}{"\t"}{.latestSuccessfulRevision}{"\n"}{end}'

   Example output:

   my-first-harness	7c1f9a2b4e8d3f60a5b7c9e1d2f4a6b8c0d2e4f68a9b1c3d5e7f9a1b3c5d7e9f	7c1f9a2b4e8d3f60a5b7c9e1d2f4a6b8c0d2e4f68a9b1c3d5e7f9a1b3c5d7e9f
   

   When the two values differ, kagent is still compiling, or compilation failed. A binding that names a RemoteMCPServer that does not exist in the namespace fails at the ResolvedRefs condition with the reason ReferenceResolutionFailed.

   Warning

   kagent resolves the server, but it does not check the tool names against the tools that the server actually serves. A misspelled tool name compiles into a ready revision, and the only symptom is an agent that never calls the tool that you expected. If a bound tool appears to be missing, check the spelling against the server’s catalog.

Create an AgentInstance that has the tool

An AgentInstanceAgentInstanceA running, conversational pairing of a Harness and an AgentTemplate. Unlike the two, it is not a Kubernetes resource: kagent's gRPC API creates it and its database tracks it.Learn more runs the revision that it was created from, and keeps running that revision for its whole life. The instance from the agent guide still runs the revision without tools, so create a second instance to pick up the binding.

1. Create a second AgentInstance from the same Harness and AgentTemplate pair. The command is the one that you ran in the agent guide, but the pair has a newer revision now, so this instance picks up the tools.

   kagent create agent-instance --harness my-first-harness --agent-template my-first-agent

   Example output:

   +--------------------------------------+----------------+------------------+-------+----------------------+
   | ID                                   | AGENT TEMPLATE | HARNESS          | STATE | CREATED              |
   +--------------------------------------+----------------+------------------+-------+----------------------+
   | 0198c4e2-8b3f-7d45-a1c6-9e2f4b8d6a03 | my-first-agent | my-first-harness | READY | 2026-08-31T16:20:38Z |
   +--------------------------------------+----------------+------------------+-------+----------------------+
   

2. Save the new AgentInstance’s ID to an environment variable.

   export TOOL_INSTANCE_ID=$(kagent get agent-instance -o json \
     | jq -r '[.agentInstances[] | select(.agentTemplate.name == "my-first-agent")] | sort_by(.createdAt) | last | .id')
   echo $TOOL_INSTANCE_ID

3. Ask the agent something that it can answer only by calling a tool.

   kagent invoke --agent-instance $TOOL_INSTANCE_ID --task "Which pods are running in the kagent namespace?"

   The agent calls k8s_get_resources and answers from the result rather than from the model’s own knowledge.

4. Ask a follow-up question that uses the second tool. The AgentInstance holds the transcriptTranscriptThe record of an AgentInstance's conversation, held server-side and append-only. It survives the Actor suspending between turns, and a resumed runtime cannot shrink it. of the conversation, so the agent can act on the pods that it just listed.

   kagent invoke --agent-instance $TOOL_INSTANCE_ID --task "Show me the last few log lines from the kagent controller pod."

Bind your own MCP server

A RemoteMCPServer points at any MCP server that the cluster can reach, whether it runs in the cluster or outside it. Create one, then bind it in the same way that you bound the built-in server.

1. Apply a RemoteMCPServer for your own server.

   kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
   apiVersion: kagent.dev/v1alpha3
   kind: RemoteMCPServer
   metadata:
     name: my-mcp-server
     namespace: kagent
   spec:
     description: An MCP server of my own.
     url: http://my-mcp-server.my-namespace:3000/mcp
     protocol: STREAMABLE_HTTP
     timeout: 30s
   EOF

   Field	Description
   description	A short description of the server. This field is required.
   url	The address of the server’s MCP endpoint.
   protocol	The transport to use, either STREAMABLE_HTTP or SSE. Defaults to STREAMABLE_HTTP.
   timeout	How long to wait on a request to the server. Defaults to 30s.
   headersFrom	Headers to send with each request, sourced from a Secret or ConfigMap. Use this field for a server that requires an API key.
   allowedNamespaces	Which namespaces may reference this server. Defaults to the server’s own namespace.
   tls	Trust settings for an HTTPS upstream whose certificate the agent does not already trust. Setting this field alongside an http:// URL is rejected.

2. Add a second binding to the AgentTemplate’s spec.tools list, naming the new server and the tools to take from it.

   tools:
     - mcp:
         server:
           kind: RemoteMCPServer
           name: kagent-tool-server
         tools:
           - k8s_get_resources
           - k8s_get_pod_logs
     - mcp:
         server:
           kind: RemoteMCPServer
           name: my-mcp-server
         tools:
           - my_tool

3. Create another AgentInstance to run the revision that includes the new binding.

Clean up

If you created a RemoteMCPServer of your own in Bind your own MCP server, delete it.

kubectl delete remotemcpserver my-mcp-server -n kagent

Next steps