---
title: Tool Nodes vs LLM Nodes
slug: tool-nodes-vs-llm-nodes
type: comparison
created: 2026-06-17
updated: 2026-06-17
status: active
tags:
  - dot
  - tools
  - llm
  - pipeline-design
sources:
  - 2389-dark-factory-dot-file-2026-03-09
  - strongdm-attractor-nlspec
  - jleechanorg-dark-factory-repo
related:
  - dot-pipeline
  - agentic-pipeline-runner
  - how-do-dot-pipelines-map-to-agent-workflows
confidence: high
contradictions:
  - Overusing tools can make the graph rigid; overusing LLM nodes can make runs expensive, nondeterministic, and hard to debug.
bead_refs:
  - dark-factory-rr4
---

# Tool Nodes vs LLM Nodes

Tool nodes run deterministic commands, checks, transformations, or integrations. LLM nodes delegate reasoning, planning, code generation, review, or synthesis to a model-backed agent.

## Design Rule

Use deterministic tool nodes for setup, parsing, validation, deployment, scoring, and evidence collection. Use LLM nodes when the task needs judgment, synthesis, code generation, or review that cannot be encoded cheaply as a tool.

## Why It Matters

`inference:` The dark factory becomes more trustworthy when nondeterminism is isolated. Keep the graph deterministic around gates and evidence, and let LLMs operate inside bounded work nodes.