diff --git a/tools.py b/tools.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3d5900
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import requests
+
+from virtual_file_system import VirtualFileSystem
+
+# Web search tool: fetch DuckDuckGo search results page
+
+def web_search(query: str) -> str:
+    """Search the web for the given query using DuckDuckGo.
+
+    Returns the raw HTML of the search results page.
+    """
+    url = f"https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q={query}"
+    try:
+        response = requests.get(url, timeout=10)
+        response.raise_for_status()
+        return response.text
+    except Exception as e:
+        return f"Error during web search: {e}"
+
+# File system tools will be wrapped in agent.py with access to a VirtualFileSystem instance.