How to increase adoption of your MCP tools

A tool that never gets called is not necessarily a bad tool. More often it is a discovery problem: the model does not know when to reach for it. Increasing adoption is mostly about making tools easy for an agent to choose correctly.

Fix the description first

Agents pick tools by reading names and descriptions. Lead with the verb and object, say when to use it and when not to, and name arguments the way a model would guess them.

Reduce competition between tools

If two tools overlap, the model splits calls or picks wrong. Merge them or sharpen the boundary so each has a clear job.

Make the happy path forgiving

• Accept the argument shapes models actually send
• Provide sensible defaults for optional fields
• Return results the agent can use without a second call

Measure and iterate

Ship a change, then watch that tool's adoption and success rate. If calls rise and success holds, the wording was the blocker. Adoption is something you improve on a loop, not guess once.