MelisAIToolCreator

AI-assisted back-office tool that creates and edits Melis modules through a chat agent. Package melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator.

Purpose

MelisAIToolCreator adds an AI Tool Creator entry to the Melis back-office tools tree. From a chat panel it drives an AI agent (the Tool Builder) that scaffolds a complete Laminas module — config, controller, model, views, language files, form fields, even a database table — and then activates it. It is the AI counterpart of melis-tool-creator; the GUI generator stays available for hand-driven scaffolding (see Create a tool). The agent talks to the platform through a dedicated MCP server, so this module is part of the wider AI stack — see AI and MCP.

Enable it

Standard Laminas module. Add it to config/melis.module.load.php:

'MelisAIToolCreator',

Requires PHP ^8.1 | ^8.3 and melisplatform/melis-ai ^5.3 (which pulls in melis-ai-engine). The module is dbdeploy-enabled: its install deltas insert the Tool Builder AI agent (mai_instance_id = aitoolcreator) and register the agent's tool list. It ships no site, only a back-office tool.

Key services

Service alias	Role
MelisAIToolCreatorService	Thin event-firing service (getToolConfig()); the real work is done by the AI agent + MCP server, not by this PHP service.

Backoffice

The tool is declared in config/app.interface.php under the AI tools section (melisai_tool_section) and routed by config/module.config.php. Controller MelisAIToolCreator\Controller\IndexController:

melisKey	Action	Role
melisaitoolcreator_tool	render-tool	Tool shell.
melisai_toolcreator_header	render-tool-header	Header zone.
melisai_toolcreator_content	render-tool-content	Launch panel: mode picker + the list of editable modules read from module/AIModules.
—	launch-agent	POST endpoint that boots the AI chat (AIChatViewHelper) for the chosen mode.

The launch panel offers three modes (see launchAgentAction):

• new — create a module/tool from scratch.
• continue_session — resume the previous chat session (session is not cleared).
• edit_existing — load a module from module/AIModules and constrain the agent to edit only inside that module's path.

The chat is started against the AI instance aitoolcreator via /melis/MelisAIToolCreator/Index/launchAgent.

The Tool Builder agent & MCP server

The agent (DB instance aitoolcreator, agent name Tool Builder) is granted a tool list by the install delta 26051502_update_agent_tools.sql. Those tools split in two groups:

• Module generation (MCP server tool_creator) — config/mcp.tools.php registers a stdio MCP server (mcp/toolcreator/bin/server.php) exposing createModule, activateModule, deactivateModule (implemented in ToolCreatorOperations). createModule scaffolds the module (optionally a multi-locale, _texts-table variant); activateModule adds it to the load list and clears caches, gated by a personalization check so unedited stubs are rejected.
• DB / file helpers (provided by the AI engine) — getTableStructure, createDatabaseTable, addDBTableColumns, selectData, insertData, updateData, deleteData, readFile, createFile, createDirectory, pathExists, updateFiles, … used by the agent to inspect data and write files.

Generated modules are written under module/AIModules/<ModuleName>/.

You can run the MCP server standalone for inspection:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector \
  php vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/mcp/toolcreator/bin/server.php

Database tables

This module adds no melis_* table of its own. Its dbdeploy deltas write into melis-ai-engine tables — chiefly melis_ai_agents (the Tool Builder row and its maa_agent_tools list). Tables for modules the agent generates are created at runtime by the createDatabaseTable tool, not shipped here.

Key files

Concern	Path
Module bootstrap	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/src/Module.php
Controller	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/src/Controller/IndexController.php
Service	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/src/Service/MelisAIToolCreatorService.php
Back-office tool tree / interface	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/config/app.interface.php, config/app.toolstree.php, config/app.tools.php
MCP registration	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/config/mcp.tools.php
MCP server + operations	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/mcp/toolcreator/bin/server.php, mcp/toolcreator/src/ToolCreatorOperations.php
Agent install deltas	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/install/dbdeploy/26051501_insert_tool_builder_agent.sql, 26051502_update_agent_tools.sql
Views	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/view/melis-ai-tool-creator/index/

See also

• Create a tool — the GUI tool generator.
• AI and MCP — the AI engine and MCP integration.
• Module reference — full module map.