L50 YouTube Transcripts

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already declare readOnlyHint and openWorldHint, but the description adds substantial behavior beyond them: the pricing model, the payment rail (USDC on Base via x402), and the error behavior (captionless videos are refused and not charged). It stops short of rate limits, max video length, or partial-failure handling, keeping it below the top mark.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Two sentences with no waste: the first front-loads what the tool returns, the second carries the commercial and failure behavior. Every clause earns its place and the pricing detail is appended rather than buried.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

There is no output schema, so the description carries the burden of describing return values, and it does so (clean text plus title, channel, language, optional segments). Payment and failure semantics are covered. Minor gaps remain around truncation, pagination, or behavior for very long videos, which matter for an agent calling a paid endpoint.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so all three parameters are already documented with defaults and formats. The description corroborates meaning by mentioning 'timestamped segments' and language metadata, but adds no syntax or format detail the schema does not already carry. Baseline 3 is appropriate.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific resource (the transcript of one YouTube video) with scope qualifiers (Short or livestream, clean text) and lists the payload contents (title, channel, language, optional timestamped segments). An agent immediately knows what this returns, and none of the sibling tools overlap with this function.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Provides cost ($0.01/call) and a failure condition (videos without captions are refused at no charge), which lets an agent judge whether to call it. However, there is no explicit when-to-use or when-not-to-use guidance, and no named alternatives (the siblings are unrelated domains, so no routing guidance is offered).

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.