Adding MCP Tools to Reachy Mini

2026-06-03 · Source: Hugging Face - Blog · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Robotics & Autonomous Systems, Software Development & Engineering · Depth: Intermediate, long

Summary

The Reachy Mini conversation app, updated on June 3, 2026, now supports remote tools hosted in public Hugging Face Spaces, accessible via MCP. This enhancement allows users to add new robot abilities, such as checking weather or searching the web, by installing a Space from the Hub with a single command, like "reachy-mini-conversation-app tool-spaces add pollen-robotics/reachy-mini-weather-tool". This approach eliminates the need to edit the core app or download code locally, as tools run remotely. The system integrates built-in, local custom, and remote MCP tools, with "profiles" controlling which tools are active through `tools.txt` files. Remote tools are namespaced (e.g., `pollen_robotics_reachy_mini_search_tool__search_web`) to prevent collisions. While supporting multiple public Gradio Spaces with standard `/gradio_api/mcp/` endpoints, the current implementation does not support private Spaces or non-Gradio Spaces.

Key takeaway

For AI Engineers developing conversational robot applications, this update simplifies expanding Reachy Mini's capabilities. You can now integrate new features like web search or weather checks by installing remote tools from Hugging Face Spaces, avoiding direct app modifications. This modular approach streamlines updates and sharing. Consider publishing your own stateless tools as public Gradio Spaces, tagging them `reachy-mini-tool` and `mcp` to foster community contributions and discoverability. Ensure your prompts effectively guide the model's use of these new remote tools.

Key insights

Reachy Mini now integrates remote tools from Hugging Face Spaces via MCP, expanding capabilities without local code modifications.

Principles

• Profiles (`tools.txt`) gate tool access.
• Remote tools enable easier sharing and updates.
• Prompts are crucial for tool orchestration.

Method

Install a tool Space using `reachy-mini-conversation-app tool-spaces add <space_slug>`, then ensure its ID is in the active profile's `tools.txt`.

In practice

• Publish stateless tools as public Gradio Spaces.
• Tag tool Spaces with `reachy-mini-tool` and `mcp`.
• Use prompts to guide tool usage.

Topics

• Reachy Mini
• Hugging Face Spaces
• MCP
• Conversational AI
• Robot Tools
• Gradio

Code references

• huggingface/blog

Best for: AI Engineer, Robotics Engineer, Software Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Hugging Face - Blog.