A negative guide tells an agent when not to perform an action, especially when deciding whether to invoke a tool. For search tools, it excludes timeless information, fundamental concepts, definitions, and established technical facts. section 2.3.2
Use negative guides to prevent avoidable tool calls:
- Reduce unnecessary latency and cost by keeping simple questions on a direct-answer path. section 2.3.2
- Pair exclusions with positive linguistic triggers so the agent can distinguish when a tool is needed from when it is not. section 2.3.2
Search or answer directly
For “What’s Samsung Electronics’ current stock price?”, invoke web search. For “What is the Pythagorean theorem?” or “How do I write a for loop in Python?”, respond directly without searching. section 2.3.2
