top of page
Search

Deterministic Tools For AI Agents (Without Writing Code)

AI Agents are great at reasoning in natural language. They’re much less reliable when you need the same input to produce the same output every time.


And we mean Every. Single. Time. 


Not 90% of the time. Not 99% of the time. You can’t run a business like that.


If you’re building workflows that include pricing rules, eligibility checks, compliance gates, routing decisions, or risk scoring, you don’t want an LLM “making its best guess.” You want a deterministic tool the Agent can call.


This post is based on the exact flow shown in this video from Lena Hall: Build Deterministic AI Tools for Reliable AI Agents: Leapter + n8n.



The reliability problem won’t be solved with better models


LLMs are probabilistic. That’s why they’re useful. It’s also why they’re dangerous as an execution engine for your business process.


So teams do the traditional thing:


  • write a function

  • handle edge cases

  • test it

  • deploy it

  • maintain it as rules change


It works, but it creates a bottleneck: domain experts know the rules, engineers translate them into code, and everyone hopes nothing gets lost in the handoff. 


This part has nothing to do with AI Agents. These are the business specific rules that make process automation complex and almost always custom.


Leapter’s approach is to make the logic layer the thing you collaborate on: visible, testable, versionable. If you want the framing behind this, see Introducing Leapter: The Logic Layer Every AI Agent Needs.


The pattern: Building custom tools for YOUR business


The workflow in the demo is simple:


  1. Describe the tool at a high level 

  2. Generate a specification (inputs, outputs, branches, edge cases) 

  3. Review it visually as an interactive logic flow 

  4. Test it with real examples and boundary cases 

  5. Export it into your agent stack (n8n, MCP, API or just code!)


Your Agents now have a way of executing your business process with precision and reliability.


If you want to see this workflow described step-by-step in the docs, start with Leapter Quickstart.


Lena Hall shares best practices for Tool Development


Demo example: height + weight → t-shirt size (then ship it into n8n)


The demo builds a tool that takes:


  • height (inches)

  • weight (pounds)

  • gender


…and returns a US t-shirt size.


The point isn’t the t-shirt. It’s the mechanics:


  • nested conditions

  • domain-owned thresholds

  • edge cases (“outside standard range”)



What Leapter generates


Leapter produces the logic in two forms:


  • a readable text specification

  • a clickable visual flow that mirrors the spec (inputs → branches → outputs)


Then you test it with real data and watch the tool execute step-by-step so you can see:

  • which conditions fired

  • which path was taken

  • why the output was returned


This is what changes the review loop: a domain expert doesn’t need to “trust the code.” They can validate the logic directly.


Export into n8n (without building custom nodes from scratch)


If you’ve ever created custom n8n nodes, you know it’s a real developer workflow (setup, TypeScript/JavaScript, project structure, testing). Here’s n8n’s official starting point: Creating nodes (n8n docs).


Leapter’s goal is to reduce how often you need to do that by making your deterministic logic exportable as a reusable tool.


Two useful references:


In practice, this means you keep your orchestration in n8n, and drop deterministic tools into the workflow where decisions must be exact.


MCP: a standard way to publish tools for agent stacks


If your stack is moving toward tool calling via MCP, the same “deterministic tool” concept holds.


MCP defines how servers expose tools that models can invoke, including the schema for inputs/outputs. For the canonical definition, see MCP Tools specification.


And if you’re using n8n specifically, n8n has MCP client nodes that allow workflows and agents to call external MCP tools (docs here): MCP Client Tool node (n8n docs).


Where this pattern pays off


Use deterministic tools anywhere you need consistent, explainable behavior:

  • pricing calculators and discount rules

  • compliance checks and policy gates 

  • eligibility and risk scoring 

  • inventory routing and ops decision trees 

  • medical and financial workflows (with strict review and audit needs)


If you want a second quick example of the same separation (agent orchestrates, tool decides), here’s a short related post: Using Leapter with Langflow: Giving AI Agents a Logic Layer They Can Trust.


A practical way to start


  1. Pick one high-value decision that currently causes rework (or manual review). 

  2. Specify inputs/outputs and define “outside range” behavior.

  3. Test boundary conditions aggressively before shipping. 

  4. Treat logic like code: version changes, document rule updates, keep history. 

  5. Let the agent orchestrate. Make deterministic tools do the deciding.



If you want to follow the demo exactly, start here: Build Deterministic AI Tools for Reliable AI Agents: Leapter + n8n.


Or dive straight in with an example of a discounting pricing rule:



bottom of page