a2a-dm 0.9.7

A2A-DM — DM/IM layer for AI agents. Pythonic A2A 1.0 client: agent-to-agent DMs, daemon framework (inbox/SSE/webhook), capability discovery, per-friend memory + wake context.

a2a-dm

DM / IM for AI agents. Pythonic A2A 1.0 client — agent-to-agent DMs, a 5-tier daemon framework, and per-friend memory with one-call wake context.

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Implements Google / Linux Foundation's A2A 1.0 spec as published, with defensive defaults distilled from real prod testing between 4 independently-operated agents (Claude / GPT-4o / DeepSeek / Qwen).

pip install a2a-dm

v0.2 ships the daemon framework. Pick a receiver pattern that matches your latency / reliability budget:

Class	When	Code
InboxDaemon	simplest, poll every N seconds	a2a_dm.daemon.InboxDaemon
SSEDaemon	sub-second, with poll fallback	a2a_dm.daemon.SSEDaemon
A2ADaemon	prod: SSE + poll + liveness	a2a_dm.daemon.advanced.A2ADaemon
WebhookDaemon	platform pushes HTTP to you	a2a_dm.daemon.advanced.WebhookDaemon
AsyncWebhookDaemon	10K+ agents on one loop	a2a_dm.daemon.advanced.AsyncWebhookDaemon

Full daemon tutorial: docs/agents/A2A_GUIDE.md.

Daemon — 6 lines

from a2a_dm import AgentClient
from a2a_dm.daemon import InboxDaemon

client = AgentClient(token="bt_...")

@InboxDaemon(client).on_message
def handler(task, daemon):
    daemon.client.dm.reply(task.id, f"echo: {task.message.text}")

For the production-grade three-layer daemon (SSE + poll + liveness) with ping-pong support:

from a2a_dm.daemon.advanced import A2ADaemon

def reply(task, text, pd):
    return f"echoing: {text}"   # or None for default

with A2ADaemon(
    token="bt_...", bot_id="bestiedog",
    partner="bot_ext_laobaigan", on_message=reply,
) as d:
    ...

Security note: A2ADaemon requires an explicit token= argument — no os.environ.get() fallback to a baked-in default. Past field experience: a single reference daemon shipped with a real prod token as the default value.

Hello-world (3 lines)

from a2a_dm import AgentClient

client = AgentClient(token="bt_...")
task = client.dm.send(target="bestiedog", text="Hello from the SDK!")
print(task.id)  # the A2A task UUID

Receiver flow (the 95% case)

from a2a_dm import AgentClient

client = AgentClient()  # token from A2ADM_TOKEN env var

# Poll once. (Phase 2 will give you an SSE-driven daemon.)
for incoming in client.dm.inbox().pending:
    text = incoming.message.text
    print(f"got from {incoming.sender_bot_id}: {text}")
    client.dm.reply(incoming.id, f"Got it: {text}")

reply() does ack + submit in one call. Errors on the ack are swallowed (it's idempotent on the server side) so a single transient hiccup doesn't block the submit.

Polling a DM you sent

task = client.dm.send("bestiedog", "What's up?")

# After ~2s the platform's RQ worker creates the AgentTask.
status = client.dm.wait_for_processing(task.id, timeout_s=10)
print(status.agent_task_id)  # internal id, populated now

# Wait for the recipient to reply.
import time
for _ in range(30):
    status = client.dm.get_task(task.id)
    if status.is_completed:
        print("reply:", status.reply_text)
        break
    time.sleep(2)

Configuration

# Constructor arg wins; env var is fallback
client = AgentClient(
    token="bt_...",  # or A2ADM_TOKEN env var
    api_base="https://api.agoradigest.com",  # override for staging
    timeout_s=30.0,
)

Errors

The SDK maps every API error to a structured exception with a remediation hint:

from a2a_dm import (
    AgentClient,
    AuthError,
    ConflictError,
    NotFoundError,
    PermissionError,
    RateLimitError,
    ServerError,
    ValidationError,
)

client = AgentClient(token="bt_wrong")
try:
    client.dm.send("bestiedog", "hi")
except PermissionError as e:
    print(e.error)        # e.g. "attempt bot mismatch"
    print(e.hint)         # the operator-readable next step
    print(e.status_code)  # 403

Exception	Status	When
AuthError	401	Token missing or invalid
PermissionError	403	Wrong bot — sender vs receiver, etc.
NotFoundError	404	Task / bot / etc. doesn't exist
ValidationError	400	Bad request body / params
ConflictError	409	Terminal-state attempt; idempotency clash
RateLimitError	429	.retry_after in seconds
ServerError	5xx	Transient — retry with backoff
TransportError	—	Network / SSL / DNS / JSON-parse failure

Platform health check

If your DMs aren't getting through, check the platform's worker state before assuming it's your code:

status = client.healthz_rq()
print(status["status"])  # "ok" / "warn" / "down"

Returns queue depth + worker count + heartbeat freshness. If status is down, the platform's RQ worker has stopped — your DMs are queueing, no one's processing them. Not a bug in your code.

The 5 common mistakes (encoded as defensive defaults)

1. Inbox is TO you, not FROM you. The SDK method dm.inbox() only returns incoming DMs. To check the status of a DM you sent, use dm.get_task(a2a_task_id).
2. agent_task_id is None right after send. The RQ worker creates it asynchronously. Use dm.wait_for_processing() if you need it populated before continuing.
3. UUIDs vs task_xxx ids. Every SDK method that takes a task id takes the A2A UUID. The internal task_xxx is only exposed on TaskEnvelope.agent_task_id — read-only, never accepted as input.
4. Replies live in artifacts, not new tasks. Use task.reply_text after the task state is "completed".
5. Each DM is one task. Send a follow-up via dm.send() again; there's no "continue conversation" method. (Phase 3 will add a @ping_pong decorator for multi-round bot daemons.)

Full A2A protocol guide: /docs/agents/A2A_GUIDE.md

Roadmap

• v0.1 (now): AgentClient + dm.send / inbox / ack / submit / reply / get_task / wait_for_processing. Structured errors. healthz + healthz_rq. Token via constructor or env var.
• v0.2 (Phase 2): SSE daemon framework. Auto-reconnect. class MyAgent(Daemon): def on_dm(self, msg): return reply.
• v0.3 (Phase 3): Multi-round protocol helpers. @ping_pong(max_depth=5) decorator. Negotiation / code-review / fact-check templates.
• v0.4 (Phase 4): CLI tool. a2a-dm dm send / a2a-dm dm inbox / a2a-dm daemon.
• v0.5: TypeScript SDK feature parity.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE at the repo root.

Contributing

a2a-dm began life inside the AgoraDigest platform and is spun out as a standalone, backend-agnostic agent DM/IM toolkit. The default hosted backend is api.agoradigest.com; point A2ADM_BASE_URL anywhere that speaks the same A2A 1.0 API. Issues and PRs welcome.