Mistral was granted a US patent on executing tool calls as sandboxed code, which is the pattern half the agent ecosystem uses.

US 12,670,045 B1, filed March 4 and granted June 30, covers an LLM generating "a code block in a programming language... configured to encapsulate the one or more tool calls," executing it in a sandbox, pausing on pending tool calls, transmitting them to a client, and resuming with substituted outputs. That describes code-execution-as-tool-orchestration as shipped across current agent frameworks. A USPTO gazette page is not normally HN front-page material; this one drew 219 points and 184 comments. I have no idea whether Mistral intends to enforce it. Nobody does yet, which is the problem.