> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://pipedream.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Tool Modes > Configure how the Pipedream MCP server exposes and handles tools 2026-04-15: Tool modes are no longer necessary with the latest [Pipedream MCP server](/docs/connect/mcp/developers) (`/v3` endpoint). Everything is now essentially `tools-only`, so the full tool schema is always returned. ## Tool modes Pipedream MCP supports a few different methods for interacting with tools: 1. [Sub-agent](/docs/connect/mcp/tool-modes#sub-agent) (default) 2. [Full config](/docs/connect/mcp/tool-modes#full-config) 3. [Tools only](/docs/connect/mcp/tool-modes#tools-only) ### **Sub-agent** When using Pipedream MCP in sub-agent mode, all tools you expose to your LLM take a single input: **`instruction`**. The Pipedream MCP server passes the **`instruction`** to an LLM to handle the configuration of the main tool using a set of agents with narrowly scoped sets of instructions and additional tools to aid in the configuration and execution of the top-level user prompt. * The benefit with this approach is that sub-agent mode abstracts some of the complexity with handling things like [remote options](/docs/connect/components/actions#configuring-action-props) and [dynamic props](/docs/connect/components/actions#configuring-dynamic-props), especially for MCP clients that don't automatically [reload tools](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/concepts/tools#tool-discovery-and-updates). * However, one downside is that as a developer, you lose some of the control and observability in this model. While in Beta, Pipedream eats the costs of the LLM tokens in sub-agent mode. We'll likely pass these costs to developers in the future. ```json theme={null} { "name": "GOOGLE_SHEETS-ADD-SINGLE-ROW", "description": "Add a single row of data to Google Sheets. [See the documentation](https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/reference/rest/v4/spreadsheets.values/append)", "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "instruction": { "type": "string" } }, "required": [ "instruction" ], "additionalProperties": false, "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#" } } ``` ### **Full-config** Full-config mode enables support for loading and configuring dynamic props. This mode provides the most flexibility for tool configuration and is required for certain features like [automatic app discovery](/docs/connect/app-discovery#automatic-app-discovery). Use `full-config` mode when you need: * Greater control over tool configuration * Support for [dynamic props](/docs/connect/api-reference/reload-component-props) * [Automatic app discovery](/docs/connect/app-discovery#automatic-app-discovery) functionality Your MCP client must be able to reload the list of available tools on each turn. See [here](https://github.com/PipedreamHQ/mcp-chat) for example implementations. #### Configuring dynamic props * Tools that use [dynamic props](/docs/connect/api-reference/reload-component-props) can't be configured in one shot, as the full prop definition isn't known until certain inputs are defined. * For example, the full set of props for `google_sheets-add-single-row` aren't known until you configure the `hasHeaders` prop. Once you know if there's a header row, you can retrieve the column names from the header row and make them available as props that can be configured. * As you call each tool, you should reload the available tools for the server to expose meta tools for configuration, such as `begin_configuration_google_sheets-add-single-row`, which causes the rest of the tools to be removed and only expose tools relevant to the configuration. #### Enabling full-config mode To use full-config mode, you need to set 2 parameters: * Set the `toolMode` to `full-config` * Pass a `conversationId` in order to maintain state for your end user's conversation ```typescript TypeScript focus={9,10} theme={null} const transport = new StreamableHTTPClientTransport(new URL(serverUrl), { requestInit: { headers: { "Authorization": `Bearer ${accessToken}`, "x-pd-project-id": PIPEDREAM_PROJECT_ID, "x-pd-environment": PIPEDREAM_ENVIRONMENT, "x-pd-external-user-id": EXTERNAL_USER_ID, "x-pd-app-slug": APP_SLUG, "x-pd-tool-mode": "full-config", // Enable full-config mode "x-pd-conversation-id": CONVERSATION_ID // Maintain conversation state } } }); ``` ```python Python focus={11,12} theme={null} from mcp import ClientSession from mcp.client.streamable_http import streamablehttp_client # Configure headers for full-config mode headers = { "Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}", "x-pd-project-id": PIPEDREAM_PROJECT_ID, "x-pd-environment": PIPEDREAM_ENVIRONMENT, "x-pd-external-user-id": EXTERNAL_USER_ID, "x-pd-app-slug": APP_SLUG, "x-pd-tool-mode": "full-config", # Enable full-config mode "x-pd-conversation-id": CONVERSATION_ID # Maintain conversation state } # Create MCP client connection with full-config mode async with streamablehttp_client(server_url, headers=headers) as (read, write, _): async with ClientSession(read, write) as session: await session.initialize() ``` ```json theme={null} { "name": "google_sheets-add-single-row", "description": "Add a single row of data to Google Sheets. [See the documentation](https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/reference/rest/v4/spreadsheets.values/append)", "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "drive": { "anyOf": [ { "anyOf": [ { "not": {} }, { "type": "string" } ] }, { "type": "null" } ], "description": "Defaults to `My Drive`. To select a [Shared Drive](https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9310351) instead, select it from this list.\n\nYou can use the \"CONFIGURE_COMPONENT\" tool using these parameters to get the values. key: google_sheets-add-single-row, propName: drive" }, "sheetId": { "type": "string", "description": "Select a spreadsheet or provide a spreadsheet ID\n\nYou can use the \"CONFIGURE_COMPONENT\" tool using these parameters to get the values. key: google_sheets-add-single-row, propName: sheetId" }, "worksheetId": { "type": "string", "description": "Select a worksheet or enter a custom expression. When referencing a spreadsheet dynamically, you must provide a custom expression for the worksheet.\n\nYou can use the \"CONFIGURE_COMPONENT\" tool using these parameters to get the values. key: google_sheets-add-single-row, propName: worksheetId" }, "hasHeaders": { "type": "boolean", "description": "If the first row of your document has headers, we'll retrieve them to make it easy to enter the value for each column. Note: When using a dynamic reference for the worksheet ID (e.g. `{{steps.foo.$return_value}}`), this setting is ignored." } }, "required": [ "sheetId", "worksheetId", "hasHeaders" ], "additionalProperties": false, "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#" } } ``` ### **Tools-only** To handle all tool configuration and calling directly, you should use `tools-only` mode. While some tools will be able to be fully configured and executed in a single shot, not all tools will work in tools-only mode. ```json theme={null} { "name": "google_sheets-add-single-row", "description": "Add a single row of data to Google Sheets. [See the documentation](https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/reference/rest/v4/spreadsheets.values/append)", "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "drive": { "anyOf": [ { "anyOf": [ { "not": {} }, { "type": "string" } ] }, { "type": "null" } ], "description": "Defaults to `My Drive`. To select a [Shared Drive](https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9310351) instead, select it from this list.\n\nYou can use the \"CONFIGURE_COMPONENT\" tool using these parameters to get the values. key: google_sheets-add-single-row, propName: drive" }, "sheetId": { "type": "string", "description": "Select a spreadsheet or provide a spreadsheet ID\n\nYou can use the \"CONFIGURE_COMPONENT\" tool using these parameters to get the values. key: google_sheets-add-single-row, propName: sheetId" }, "worksheetId": { "type": "string", "description": "Select a worksheet or enter a custom expression. When referencing a spreadsheet dynamically, you must provide a custom expression for the worksheet.\n\nYou can use the \"CONFIGURE_COMPONENT\" tool using these parameters to get the values. key: google_sheets-add-single-row, propName: worksheetId" }, "hasHeaders": { "type": "boolean", "description": "If the first row of your document has headers, we'll retrieve them to make it easy to enter the value for each column. Note: When using a dynamic reference for the worksheet ID (e.g. `{{steps.foo.$return_value}}`), this setting is ignored." } }, "required": [ "sheetId", "worksheetId", "hasHeaders" ], "additionalProperties": false, "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#" } } ``` ## Automatic app discovery Automatic app discovery requires `full-config` mode, which is not supported on the `/v3` MCP server endpoint. When using earlier versions of the Pipedream MCP server with `full-config` mode, you can enable Pipedream to automatically identify relevant apps from a given prompt by passing `appDiscovery=true`. ### How it works When app discovery is enabled: 1. Pipedream analyzes the incoming prompt to identify which apps are most relevant 2. The initial tool call responds with an array of relevant apps 3. When the client reloads its available tools, it has tools for the relevant apps ### App detection examples | User Input | Apps Detected | | ---------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | "Send a message to the #general channel in Slack" | slack | | "Create a task in Notion and send a notification to Slack" | notion, slack | | "Add this email to my spreadsheet" | google\_sheets, microsoft\_excel, airtable\_oauth, zoho\_sheet, smartsheet | | "Schedule a meeting and update my CRM" | google\_calendar, zoho\_crm, hubspot | To search for apps programmatically today, use the [app discovery](/docs/connect/app-discovery) API.