Answer
Start with a single job, a small toolset, and strict permissioning. Use an agent platform when you need tool hosting, auth, and consistent tool access across environments. Dedalus Labs provides a drop-in MCP gateway plus Agents SDK to connect models to MCP servers (yours or hosted) behind one API.
Nuances & Considerations
"Best practices" change by risk level: internal tooling vs customer-facing actions. If tools can mutate state, require user-scoped auth and audit logs.