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Tool calls and actions

EchoKit supports MCP (Model Context Protocol), which allows LLMs to call external tools and actions.
With tools, you can extend EchoKit beyond voice conversations, such as,

  • Manage your Google Calendar
  • Send emails
  • Perform web searches
  • Connect to Home Assistant to control lights, AC, and other smart devices
  • And many others

1. Prerequisites​

Before adding MCP tools, make sure that you

  • Have access to an MCP server. You can use a public MCP server or run one locally on your machine. The MCP server can be either:
    • SSE MCP server, or
    • HTTP streamable MCP server
  • Use an LLM model that is capable of tool use (or, tool calling). You can use both /v1/chat/completions or /v1/responses APIs.

2. Add MCP servers to EchoKit​

Add the following section to your config.toml file:

[[llm.mcp_server]]
server = "http://localhost:8000/mcp"
type = "http_streamable"
call_mcp_message = "Please hold on a few seconds while I am searching for an answer!"
  • server: The MCP server address.
  • type: The type of MCP server. Supported values:
    • sse
    • http_streamable
  • call_mcp_message: A message the EchoKit device will read aloud when the server calls the MCP tool. It is often needed since the MCP tool call could introduce signaificant latency in the response.

👉 You can add multiple [[llm.mcp_server]] blocks if you want to connect EchoKit to more than one MCP server.

3. Example​

Here is an example of using Tavily to add "web search" functions to an EchoKit server.

[[llm.mcp_server]]
server = "https://mcp.tavily.com/mcp/?tavilyApiKey=YOUR-API-KEY"
type = "http_streamable"
call_mcp_message = "It seems that I need to search the web for an answer. Please hold on!"

4. Run the server​

Once your MCP server is set and the configuration updated, restart EchoKit following Running EchoKit server.

EchoKit will now be able to call external actions via MCP.

✅ With this setup, your EchoKit is no longer just a chatbot — it can interact with external systems and become a programmable AI agent.