Seems that Google intend it to be that way - https://ai.google.dev/gemma/docs/capabilities/function-calli... . I suppose they are saying that the model is good enough that if you put the tool call format in prompt it should be able to handle any formats.
I use PetrosStav/gemma3-tools and it seems that it only works half of the time - the rest the model call the tool but it doesn't get properly parsed by Ollama.
unfortunately, I don't think gemma 3 supports tool calling well. It's not trained into the model, and the 'support' for tool calling is post model training.
We are working with Google, and trying to give the feedback on improving tool calling capabilities for future Gemma models. Fingers crossed!
Seems that Google intend it to be that way - https://ai.google.dev/gemma/docs/capabilities/function-calli... . I suppose they are saying that the model is good enough that if you put the tool call format in prompt it should be able to handle any formats.
I use PetrosStav/gemma3-tools and it seems that it only works half of the time - the rest the model call the tool but it doesn't get properly parsed by Ollama.
unfortunately, I don't think gemma 3 supports tool calling well. It's not trained into the model, and the 'support' for tool calling is post model training.
We are working with Google, and trying to give the feedback on improving tool calling capabilities for future Gemma models. Fingers crossed!
All instruct templates are added in "post model training", and Gemma 3 works fine calling custom MCP tools using Jan and KoboldCpp.
We can do function calling with Google's Gemma 3, just need to follow the right pattern.
You can do “tool calling” via Gemma3. The issue is that it all needs to be stuck in the user prompt as there’s no system prompt