Curated MCP commands

A curated command routes a request straight to one of Slate's own workspace tools (create a doc, search notes, ask a shared workspace) without the model choosing, so a small model works.

The pipeline#

request → keyword routing → resolve the tool → prefill known args → model fills the rest (structured output) → one tool call

"Create a plan about retries" resolves to create_doc with doc_type set; the model supplies only the title. The model returns JSON for the missing fields only, and the app merges it with the arguments it injected.

A read tool runs at once. A write asks first, except under Auto-edit and Full auto, where only Create an automation and Run an automation still ask (Approvals).

What matches#

A command that writes (doc, project, agent, memory) matches only when your message opens like it ("new project for…", "draft a plan…", "remember that…", after an optional "please" or "can you"). "What's new in this project" is never a command.
Anything unmatched goes to the agent's own CLI, which loops over its own MCP tools. A turn is one Slate tool call or a CLI handoff.

Both halves of memory#

Home reads this workspace's memory (recall_memory) and what colleagues wrote in every workspace you belong to, even ones this machine has not materialised (recall_workspaces, then workspace_doc). Your own agents reach the same two over MCP as recall with scope: "workspaces" and get_doc. Questions like "what does the team know about retries" or "has anyone solved this before" reach the shared half; "what do I know about…" stays local. A shared answer names its author.

Naming a workspace routes to the shared tools, scoped to it, with no MCP connection needed ("what data do I have in my Apollo workspace"). The name counts only beside a team word (workspace, team, shared), so "fix the Apollo timeout bug" stays ordinary.

The same abilities over MCP#

Home's commands are Slate's in-app tools. Your own agents get Slate's abilities through its MCP server instead, place by place: the Tool Reference lists them, and packages/catalog/src/en/mcpCoverage.json says which tools each part of Slate serves, or why one stays in the app (ADR 0127). Run an automation is run_automation there; Create an automation has no MCP tool.