Publishing your tool is just the beginning.
Every time someone asks RivalBot to complete a task, Rival evaluates the available tools and recommends the one most likely to deliver the best outcome. That decision isn't random. It's based on how well your tool matches the request, how reliably it performs, and how much confidence the platform has that it will succeed.
The good news? Those are all things you can improve.
This guide covers six ways to improve your tool so it's more likely to be recommended, adopted, and used across Rival.
Step 1: Clearly Describe What Your Tool Does
Your title and description aren't just marketing copy. They're how Rival understands when your tool should be recommended. Start with a title that describes the outcome, not an internal project name.
Example:
Instead of: CRM Helper v3
Try: Prioritize Sales Leads by Close Probability
In your description, answer three questions immediately:
What does the tool do?
Who is it for?
When should someone use it?
Then strengthen your description by including:
Departments or teams (Sales, HR, Legal, Customer Support)
Common workflows
Related terminology and synonyms
A real-world example of the expected outcome
For example: "Analyzes customer feedback and groups comments into recurring themes for product and support teams."
The more clearly Rival understands your tool, the more opportunities it has to recommend it.
Step 2: Tag with Precision
Tags help categorize your tool and make it easier to identify when it's relevant to a user's request. Start with Rival's suggested tags, then add your own. The strongest tag strategy combines what the tool does with who it's for.
For example:
Actions
Summarize
Extract
Analyze
Generate
Classify
Business Context
Finance
Marketing
Customer Support
HR
Legal
Specific tags create more opportunities for your tool to appear in relevant workflows.
Step 3: Prioritize Reliability
Users trust tools that consistently work. Rival does too. A tool that frequently errors, times out, or produces inconsistent results is less likely to be recommended over time.
Before publishing:
Validate every required input.
Handle missing or unexpected data gracefully.
Test edge cases.
Monitor latency and execution time.
Fix issues quickly when they're reported.
Reliable tools build trust, and trust leads to more recommendations.
Step 4: Write Documentation that Removes Friction
Great documentation doesn't just help users, it helps other builders integrate your tool into larger workflows.
Include:
Authentication requirements
Required API keys or secrets
Input parameters
Output schema
Error responses
Sample requests and responses
Whenever possible, include a complete end-to-end example. The easier it is for someone to understand and implement your tool, the more likely it is to become part of recurring automations and AI agents.
Step 5: Build for Scale
The most successful tools aren't designed for one specific workflow. They're reusable building blocks. Think beyond a single use case and ask:
Can another builder use this inside their own agent?
Can this support multiple industries?
Can it become one step in a larger automation?
Tools that fit into many workflows naturally receive more usage over time. You can accelerate adoption by:
Sharing your tool with the community
Building against requests from the Mission Board
Continuously expanding supported use cases
The broader your tool's usefulness, the more opportunities it has to be recommended.
Step 6: Keep Improving After You Publish
Publishing isn't the finish line. It's version one. The highest-performing tools are actively maintained. Respond to user feedback. Fix bugs quickly. Improve your descriptions. Expand your documentation. Release updates regularly.
Every improvement increases confidence in your tool and helps it remain competitive as new tools are added to the marketplace.
Better Tools Get More Runs
There's no shortcut to earning more recommendations. The tools that consistently rise to the top all have the same characteristics:
They're easy to understand.
They're reliable.
They're well documented.
They're broadly useful.
They're actively maintained.
Focus on building tools that solve real problems, make them easy to discover, and continue improving them over time. Do that consistently, and Rival will have every reason to recommend your work to more users.