Designing the Layered Tool Pattern
MCP Dev Summit
Shared how the Square MCP server orchestrates discovery, planning, and execution layers so MCP clients like Goose stay reliable even across hundreds of endpoints.
AIMCPDesign
Legible systems / AI + developer products
Make intelligent systems legible.
I help AI and developer-tool companies turn technical complexity into shared understanding, credible proof, and better adoption.
I’m Richard Moot. I clarify the product, demonstrate how it works, and teach the people who need to evaluate, use, and champion it.
Public territory / technology, judgment, behavior, and intelligent systems.
The practice
Clarify, demonstrate, teach. The full method, engagement shapes, and fit criteria live on the consulting page.
Every engagement follows three moves: clarify the mental model, demonstrate the mechanism, and teach the practice. Each one leaves an artifact the team can inspect and reuse.
How the consulting practice worksProof in public
Talks, demos, interviews, and write-ups that show the work in the open.
Layered Tool Pattern for MCP
WorkOS MCP Night 2.0
Demoed how the Square MCP server’s layered tool pattern compresses 30+ APIs into discovery, planning, and execution tools that Goose, our MCP client, can reason over.
AIMCPGoose
MCP Night 2.0 Demo Recap
WorkOS Blog
WorkOS covered Block’s layered tool approach that shrinks a massive API surface into three MCP primitives for AI enablement.
AIMCPAPIs
Bring me the hard-to-explain thing
If the product is powerful but difficult to explain, evaluate, or adopt, that is the work.
I’m available for selective consulting engagements and remote senior individual-contributor or leadership roles.
Career evidence
A decade across developer relations, API platforms, advocacy, technical product work, and AI enablement.
Career / Selected work
Where I have led, shipped, and taught.
PayPal
Head of Developer Advocacy
2026 / Present
Block
Developer Relations Tech Lead, AI Enablement
2023 / 2026
Square
Head of Developer Relations
2021 / 2023
Square
Staff API Engineer & Advocate
2020 / 2021
Square
Senior Developer Advocate
2017 / 2020
Shippo
Developer Evangelist
2017 / 2017
Codility
Sales Engineer
2015 / 2016
Codility
Technical Product Specialist
2015 / 2016