Applied AI·Structured outputs and tool calling
the model replies with the name of one of your functions and its arguments instead of an answer, and your code runs it and hands the result back.
Function calling / tool calling
Also calledtool calling
Draft summary, pending review
The model, given a list of tool definitions, replying with a structured request to call one, naming the tool and supplying JSON arguments. The model never executes anything; it only asks. Your code executes and returns the result. The two names are interchangeable.