Here is a faster rewrite of your original program. The major cost in your line profile is `list(self._tools.values())`. Since the number of tools is likely not huge and Python dict objects' `.values()` view is already very fast, the only realistic optimization possible here is to avoid actually copying into a list whenever possible.

If you need a `list` in all usages (due to downstream mutation that requires a real list), you cannot easily optimize this. But if this function frequently gets called *just to iterate* or to check membership/length etc, and you control the code that consumes it, returning a *view* (using `.values()`) will be strictly faster and more memory efficient (no copy).

**However, if you must keep returning a list (as per signature) for compatibility, the only microscopic improvement is to reuse an existing list, or to avoid even that call in the "empty" case. Otherwise, list conversion is already C speed.**

Below is as optimized as possible, with a micro-optimization for the empty-dictionary case (most significant for very frequent calls with often no tools).



**Summary:**  
- Skips allocating a list entirely for the (very likely, early startup) empty case.
- For non-empty, uses exactly the fast idiomatic code (no way to beat the C list constructor).
- Preserves comments and signature exactly.

There is no further real-world optimization possible unless you are allowed to change the interface (to return a view or a tuple), or you cache the list and invalidate on mutation (which is rarely worth it for such a quick operation). If your actual bottleneck is somewhere else (such as tool registration, not listing), consider profiling those paths as well.