# Tool presentations

Make tool requests easier to read with clear titles and formatted arguments.

**Tool presentations** make requests easier to understand. They give tool calls readable titles and show their arguments as emails, commands, diffs and other useful formats.

Presentations change how a request looks, not the action or its approval rules. Reviewers can still inspect every argument and the original JSON in the [Review queue](/docs/web-app/review-queue#request-details).

## Built-in and custom presentations

The **Built-in catalog** includes presentations for common tools. Tools without a matching presentation are formatted automatically from their arguments.

**Your presentations** are custom entries shared across your organization. You can create one from scratch or use **Customize** to start from a built-in entry. A matching custom presentation takes priority over the built-in catalog.

![Tool presentations showing the organization's custom entries and the built-in catalog of shell, file-editing and other tools](/images/docs/tool-presentations/catalog-light.png)

Custom presentations belong to your organization. The built-in catalog supplies the defaults.

## Matching tools

**Applies to** determines which calls use a presentation:

- **Tool** matches the exact tool name, without an `mcp__server__` prefix.
- **MCP server** limits it to a particular server.
- **Runtime** limits it to a particular agent runtime, such as `claude-code`.

Leaving the server or runtime empty means any server or runtime can match. Use the names recorded on the request.

When several custom entries match, the most specific wins: server and runtime together, then server, then runtime, then tool name alone.

## Titles and fields

**Title** gives the request a readable name. It can include argument values: `Update {{/path}}` becomes **Update refund-policy.json** when the `path` argument contains that filename.

**Fields** choose how individual arguments appear. A **Path** such as `/body` or `/customer/email` identifies the value. **Label** gives it a readable name, and field order controls the reading order.

| Kind | Useful for |
| --- | --- |
| Text, Prose | Short values and longer passages. |
| Markdown, HTML | Formatted text and email bodies. |
| Code, Shell command | Source code and commands. |
| Diff | A patch, or a comparison of before and after text. |
| List, JSON | Lists and structured data. |
| File path, URL, Email address, Identifier | File names, addresses and references. |
| Enum, Date and time | Status values and timestamps. |

**Main block** keeps a field prominent. **Details, folded** puts it in an expandable section. Arguments you do not configure still appear. HTML previews do not run scripts or load external content.

## Preview

**Preview** shows how sample arguments will read with the current title and fields. It does not run the tool or create an approval request. Opening the editor from a request fills in that request's arguments for the sample.

### Example: Refund policy change

Our `update_refund_policy` tool proposes raising a refund limit from **$75 to $100**. Without a custom presentation, the old and new text appear separately.

![Preview of update_refund_policy with the before and after values displayed as separate text blocks](/images/docs/tool-presentations/before-light.png)

Before: reviewers compare two separate blocks of text.

We'll use **Diff** with **Before** set to `/before` and **After** set to `/after`. The title `Update {{/path}}` names the file. Reviewers can now see the changed limit at a glance.

![The same refund-policy sample with a readable filename title and a diff highlighting the limit changing from 75 to 100](/images/docs/tool-presentations/after-light.png)

After: the diff highlights the change while keeping the file path visible.

## Saving and removal

Saved changes apply when matching requests are loaded, including older requests. There is no separate activation step.

Removing a custom presentation deletes that entry. Requests use another matching presentation, the built-in catalog or automatic formatting.

Viewing presentations requires access to organization settings; changing them requires permission to edit those settings. [Audit log](/docs/web-app/audit-log) records creation, changes and removal.