Appendix · Tools for agents
Eleven tools, read-only
If your browser offers an agent, every page here hands it eleven tools. They read the same records the pages are drawn from, so what an agent finds is what you would find. The tool functions run in your browser and save nothing, and the ordinary pages work exactly as they did before.
describe_siteWhat this site holds and how the tools fit together.search_photographsFind plates by words in their captions, descriptions and tags.list_photograph_tagsThe collection’s own vocabulary, most used first.browse_photographsEvery plate with its caption and tags, a hundred to a page.get_photographOne plate, with the plates before and after it.curate_exhibitTurn chosen plates into a link you can open and share.search_birdsThe illustrated catalog, by name or family.get_birdOne species: field marks, measurements, habitat, behavior.identify_birdA ranked guess from a description in your own words.search_notesThe field notes, including the homelab.codes shelf.list_projectsThe projects catalog.
To try it
Chrome runs WebMCP as an origin trial until mid-November 2026, and this site is enrolled, so a Chrome with an agent attached sees the tools with no setup. ChatGPT’s desktop app supports it natively. Without either, the pages are the same as ever.
What they never do
Save your inputs, or change anything. Every tool only reads, in your browser, from files this site serves to anyone. Your agent provider may process what you ask and what comes back; the two tools that hand your own words back, the bird matcher and the exhibit builder, tell the agent so. A shared exhibit link carries its title and chosen plates in the URL, so anyone who opens it, and this site’s request logs, see them.