MelisAIToolCreator

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

Purpose

MelisAIToolCreator adds an AI Tool Creator entry to the Melis AI back-office menu. It ships a dedicated AI agent (Tool Builder) and an MCP server; the agent scaffolds complete Laminas modules under module/AIModules/ by calling code-generation tools over JSON-RPC. It is the reference example of the MelisAI app-extension pattern: it registers the aitoolcreator instance, the MCP server, and opens the engine's chat helper.

Enable it

Add to config/melis.module.load.php:

return [
    'MelisAIToolCreator',
];

Requires melisplatform/melis-ai ^5.3 (which pulls in melis-ai-engine). The module is dbdeploy-enabled: on install its deltas insert the Tool Builder agent and the aitoolcreator instance into the engine's melis_ai_agents / melis_ai_instances tables.

Key services

Service alias	Role
MelisAIToolCreatorService	getToolConfig(); fires melisaitoolcreator_service_get_tool_config_start/_end. The real work is performed by the AI agent + MCP server.

Backoffice

The tool is declared in config/app.toolstree.php (icon fa-magic) and routed by config/module.config.php (/MelisAIToolCreator/[:controller[/:action]]). Controller MelisAIToolCreator\Controller\IndexController exposes:

Action	Role
renderTool / renderToolHeader / renderToolContent	Render the tool shell, header, and the launch panel (mode picker + module dropdown).
launchAgentAction	POST to /melis/MelisAIToolCreator/Index/launchAgent; opens the engine chat for the aitoolcreator instance via AIChatViewHelper.

The module dropdown for edit_existing is populated by scanning module/AIModules/ with glob(... GLOB_ONLYDIR).

Launch modes

Button (UI label)	mode	Behaviour
New tool	new	Agent calls createModule first, then updateFiles the two language files using the SCAN RESULTS keys.
Continue my last session	continue_session	clearSession=false — resumes the previous conversation state for the aitoolcreator instance.
Edit existing tool	edit_existing	Pre-selects the chosen module; agent may only touch files inside that module path, must readFile before updateFiles, and must not call createModule.

The Tool Builder agent & MCP server

config/mcp.tools.php declares the MCP server:

$config['mcp']['servers']['tool_creator'] = [
    'enabled'        => true,
    'module'         => 'melis-ai-tool-creator',
    'args'           => '.../mcp/toolcreator/bin/server.php',
    'timeout'        => 600,
    'retry_attempts' => 1,
];

The long timeout (600 s) reflects that module generation can take minutes.

Tools are registered in config['plugins']['melisaiengine']['datas']['function_declarations'] with mcp: true; the engine routes calls to this server. They appear under the module-builder group in the agent's AI Tools allow-list.

Module-builder tools (MCP server tool_creator)

Tool	Purpose
createModule	Scaffold a full Laminas module under module/AIModules/. Inputs: moduleName, functionality, needDBTable, databaseTableStructure{tableName, fields[{name,type,primary}]}. Returns SCAN RESULTS (generated config + view keys).
updateFiles	Write or modify files inside the module (the agent's main editing tool).
activateModule	Enable the module and clear caches. After activation the agent instructs the user to reload.
deactivateModule	Disable the module and clear caches.
generateBundle	Rebuild CSS/JS bundles after editing public/.

The agent also has access to the engine's shared filesystem tools (createFile, createDirectory, pathExists, readFile, deleteFile, deleteDirectory) and DB-schema tools (getTableStructure, createDatabaseTable, addDBTableColumns, …) — see MelisAI §A5.3.

Safety note

The file-writing tools are constrained to module/AIModules/ and the agent prompts forbid touching paths outside the chosen module. Generated modules are real PHP that gets activated — review them before production, and treat activateModule as a privileged action. The agent narrates one short sentence before each tool call, making the build auditable in the chat transcript.

Database tables

This module owns no melis_* tables. Its dbdeploy deltas write into the engine's melis_ai_instances and melis_ai_agents tables. Tables for modules the agent generates are created at runtime by the createDatabaseTable tool.

Key files

Concern	Path
Controller	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/src/Controller/IndexController.php
Service	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/src/Service/MelisAIToolCreatorService.php
MCP registration	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/config/mcp.tools.php
MCP server entry point	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/mcp/toolcreator/bin/server.php
Tool tree / assets	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/config/app.toolstree.php, config/app.interface.php
Route config	vendor/melisplatform/melis-ai-tool-creator/config/module.config.php

See also

• MelisAI — manage instances, agents, tools, models and keys.
• MelisAIEngine — the contract, shared tables, MCP/tool bridge.
• MelisAIEngineClaude · MelisAIEngineGemini — provider implementations.
• MelisAICommunityExtensions — another app-extension example.