Tools

GAZE ships 25 built-in tools: 23 visual tools that operate on the active image and 2 search tools that retrieve external evidence. Visual tools come from create_visual_tools() (src/gaze/tools/visual.py); search tools from create_search_tools() (src/gaze/tools/search.py).

Visual tools are enabled with use_tools=True and search tools with use_web_search=True. Tools are only offered in multi-turn mode (max_turns > 1); the final turn always withholds them. Any tool can be excluded by name via the disabled_tools constructor argument.

Coordinate and intensity effects

GAZE classifies tools by whether they change how subsequent measurements relate to the original image (base.py):

• Coordinate-modifying (_COORD_MODIFYING_TOOLS): crop, zoom, rotate, flip_horizontal, flip_vertical. After any of these, bounding boxes no longer correspond to original pixel coordinates.
• Intensity-modifying (_INTENSITY_MODIFYING_TOOLS): threshold, window_level, equalize_histogram, adaptive_equalize, invert, detect_edges, symmetry_diff, morphological, denoise, adjust_contrast, adjust_brightness, adjust_sharpness. After any of these, pixel values no longer represent original tissue intensities, so get_intensity_stats and intensity_profile reflect the transformed data.

On the final turn GAZE re-attaches the original image and warns the model when either class of tool was used. A successful reset clears both flags. Tools marked read-only below render an image (or return numbers) without mutating the registry's image state, so they do not set either flag.

The numeric ranges quoted below are the defaults from ImageProcessingConfig (src/gaze/config.py). They are configurable: overriding the config changes both the validation bounds and the ranges advertised to the model.

Visual tools

Geometry

Tool	Purpose	Parameters	Effect
zoom	Magnify the image for detail analysis	factor (number, 0.5-4.0)	coordinate
crop	Extract a rectangular region	box ([x1,y1,x2,y2], normalized 0-1; pixel coords auto-converted)	coordinate
rotate	Rotate the image 90 degrees	clockwise (boolean, default true)	coordinate
flip_horizontal	Mirror left-right (reverses laterality)	none	coordinate
flip_vertical	Mirror top-bottom (reverses superior/inferior)	none	coordinate

Intensity and contrast

Tool	Purpose	Parameters	Effect
adjust_contrast	Enhance or reduce contrast	factor (number, 0.5-3.0; 1.0 = no change)	intensity
adjust_brightness	Adjust brightness	factor (number, 0.5-2.0; 1.0 = no change)	intensity
adjust_sharpness	Adjust sharpness	factor (number, 0.1-3.0; 1.0 = original)	intensity
threshold	Intensity windowing, rescaled to 0-255 (grayscale)	lower (integer, 0-254), upper (integer, 1-255, must exceed lower; window width >= 50)	intensity
window_level	Clinical window/level (grayscale)	preset (enum) OR both center (integer) and width (integer, >= 50)	intensity
equalize_histogram	Global histogram equalization (grayscale)	none	intensity
adaptive_equalize	CLAHE local contrast (grayscale)	clip_limit (number, 1.0-4.0, default 2.0), tile_size (integer, 2-32, default 8)	intensity
invert	Invert intensities, negative (grayscale)	none	intensity
denoise	Gaussian blur for noise reduction	sigma (number, 0.5-5.0)	intensity

window_level requires either a preset or both center and width; if a preset is supplied it overrides center/width. The available presets are the keys of WINDOW_PRESETS in visual.py. MRI presets (for 8-bit pixel values) are brain/mri_brain, flair/mri_flair, t2/mri_t2, stroke, posterior_fossa. CT presets (Hounsfield units) are ct_brain, ct_subdural, ct_bone, ct_soft_tissue, ct_stroke, ct_posterior_fossa. Applying CT presets to 8-bit MRI data is rejected when it would compress the dynamic range below the minimum window width.

Edges and morphology

Tool	Purpose	Parameters	Effect
detect_edges	Edge map via Sobel or Laplacian (grayscale)	method (enum: sobel, laplacian; default sobel)	intensity
symmetry_diff	Left-right symmetry difference map (grayscale)	none	intensity
morphological	Erode/dilate/open/close (grayscale)	operation (enum: erode, dilate, open, close), iterations (integer, 1-5, default 1), threshold_value (integer, 0-255, optional binarization)	intensity

Measurement (read-only)

Tool	Purpose	Parameters	Effect
get_intensity_stats	Mean/std/min/max/median + 10-bin histogram	box ([x1,y1,x2,y2], normalized 0-1, optional; full image if omitted)	read-only
intensity_profile	Sample intensities along a line	point1, point2 ([x,y], normalized 0-1)	read-only
measure	Euclidean distance between two points (pixels)	point1, point2 ([x,y], normalized 0-1)	read-only

These tools report against the current image. When the image has been modified they append a note recommending reset for original-space values.

Annotation and state (read-only)

Tool	Purpose	Parameters	Effect
show_grid	Overlay a labeled reference grid (e.g. A1, B2)	divisions (integer, 2-8)	read-only
annotate_region	Draw a bounding box overlay for propose-and-verify	box ([x1,y1,x2,y2], normalized 0-1), color (enum: red, green, yellow, blue, white, cyan, magenta; default red), label (string, optional)	read-only
reset	Restore the original image, discarding all modifications	none	clears both flags

show_grid and annotate_region render an image for the model to see without changing the registry's image state. reset restores the original image and clears the coordinate- and intensity-modified flags.

Search tools

Enabled with use_web_search=True. These do not require an image and can run in text-only sessions. Results are length-limited and sanitized before being returned to the model.

Tool	Purpose	Parameters
search_web	Search PubMed for medical literature and guidelines	query (string), search_type (enum: diagnosis, research, guidelines, anatomy, treatment, differential, general; default general)
search_images	Search NIH Open-i for reference medical images	query (string), modality (enum: MRI, CT, X-ray, Ultrasound, PET, Mammography, any; default any), body_part (enum: brain, head, chest, abdomen, spine, pelvis, cardiac, any; default any)

Search timeouts, retry counts, rate limits, and endpoint URLs are governed by SearchConfig (see Configuration). The PubMed and Open-i base URLs are validated against an allowlist of NCBI/NLM hostnames.