Xrefs To Field

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

No annotations are provided, so the description carries the full disclosure burden. It gestures at a heuristic-vs-strict matching behavior, which is genuinely useful, but the sentence is cut off, and there is no mention of false-positive risk, result-capping behavior, or performance cost of the default heuristic scan.

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?

It is short, but not by choice: the text terminates mid-clause, leaving an unclosed parenthetical and an incomplete thought. This is under-specification rather than conciseness, and the one useful fact (heuristic default) is buried in a broken fragment.

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?

A six-parameter search tool with no annotations and no output schema needs the description to cover result shape, match semantics, and truncation behavior. The description covers none of these and is itself incomplete, leaving an agent unable to predict what comes back from a heuristic vs strict query.

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 six parameters including strict, limit, timeout, and instance_id are already documented in the schema; the baseline is 3. The description's 'Heuristic by default' adds a small amount of contrast against the strict parameter but nothing beyond what the schema already explains.

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 verb and resource ('Search struct field references'), which is more than a restatement of the name, but the sentence is truncated mid-parenthetical ('Heuristic by default (name/offset text') so the core mechanism it is trying to convey is never completed. It also does not distinguish itself from the address-oriented siblings xrefs_to and xrefs_from.

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?

There is no explicit when-to-use guidance and no mention of the obvious alternatives (xrefs_to, xrefs_from, get_struct_info). The only usage hint is the truncated 'Heuristic by default', which implies a relevance trade-off but never states when an agent should prefer strict mode.

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