akgentic-agent

LLM-driven collaborative agents for the Akgentic multi-agent framework. BaseAgent composes the actor runtime, LLM integration, and tool infrastructure into a single unit where agents communicate through a typed message protocol and route messages to each other via structured LLM output.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Communication Model
• Message Protocol
• Team Composition
• Configuration
• Tool Channels
• Examples
• Development
• License

Overview

Each agent is an Akgent actor. When it receives an AgentMessage, it runs a REACT loop (ReactAgent.run_sync) and returns a StructuredOutput — a list of Request objects that each name a recipient and a message type. The framework resolves the recipients and delivers the messages; the LLM navigates the conversation graph.

Human
  │  AgentMessage(content, type="request")
  ▼
HumanProxy ──send()──► BaseAgent (Manager)
                             │
                    receiveMsg_AgentMessage()
                             │  prepend reply protocol to the prompt:
                             │  "You received a request from @Human. Carry out the
                             │   task, then respond to @Human. ..."
                             │
                    process_message(prompt, sender)
                             │
                    act(prompt, StructuredOutput)
                      │
                      ├─ expand !!glob_pattern refs (if WorkspaceTool present)
                      └─ ReactAgent.run_sync(prompt, output_type=StructuredOutput)
                             │
                    StructuredOutput.messages = [
                        Request(recipient="@Assistant", message_type="instruction", message="..."),
                        Request(recipient="Developer",  message_type="request",     message="..."),
                    ]
                             │
                    for each Request:
                      ├─ "@Name" → resolve to existing actor
                      └─ "Role"  → hire_member(role) → create actor
                             │
                    send AgentMessage with enriched content:
                      "You received a request from @Manager:\n\n<message>"

Installation

git clone git@github.com:b12consulting/akgentic-quick-start.git
cd akgentic-quick-start
git submodule update --init --recursive

uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync --all-packages --all-extras

Quick Start

import time
from akgentic.agent import AgentConfig, AgentMessage, BaseAgent, HumanProxy
from akgentic.core import ActorSystem, AgentCard, BaseConfig, Orchestrator
from akgentic.llm import ModelConfig, PromptTemplate

# Actor runtime + Orchestrator
actor_system = ActorSystem()
orchestrator_addr = actor_system.createActor(
    Orchestrator, config=BaseConfig(name="@Orchestrator", role="Orchestrator")
)
orchestrator_proxy = actor_system.proxy_ask(orchestrator_addr, Orchestrator)

# Define and register a role blueprint
manager_card = AgentCard(
    role="Manager",
    description="Project manager who coordinates specialists",
    skills=["coordination", "delegation"],
    agent_class="akgentic.agent.BaseAgent",
    config=AgentConfig(
        name="@Manager",
        role="Manager",
        prompt=PromptTemplate(template="You are a project manager. Delegate to specialists."),
        model_cfg=ModelConfig(provider="openai", model="gpt-4.1"),
    ),
    routes_to=["Developer", "QA"],   # roles this agent can hire on demand
)
# Register role blueprints — accepts a list of AgentCard
orchestrator_proxy.register_agent_profiles([manager_card])

# Human entry point
human_addr = orchestrator_proxy.createActor(
    HumanProxy, config=BaseConfig(name="@Human", role="Human")
)
human_proxy = actor_system.proxy_tell(human_addr, HumanProxy)

# Instantiate Manager and send the first message
manager_addr = orchestrator_proxy.createActor(
    BaseAgent, config=manager_card.get_config_copy()
)

time.sleep(0.3)

# Send a message from the human to the manager
human_proxy.send(manager_addr, AgentMessage(content="Plan the next sprint."))

Communication Model

Every message in the system carries an intent — a declaration of what the sender expects from the recipient. Intent is the core abstraction that drives conversation flow between agents.

Intent: the driving concept

When an agent sends a message, it declares its intent via a message_type:

Intent	Meaning	Expected reply
request	"Do this and bring me the result"	response
instruction	"Do this (possibly for a third party)"	acknowledgment
response	"Here is what you asked for"	Optional
notification	"FYI — no action needed"	None
acknowledgment	"Got it"	None

The key distinction is who needs the result: a request means "bring it back to me", an instruction means "go do this on my behalf".

Intent flows through the system in two complementary ways:

1. When sending — The LLM chooses an intent for each outbound Request. The framework delivers it as an AgentMessage whose type field preserves that intent, and whose content is enriched with the sender and intent (e.g., "You received a request from @Manager: ...").

2. When receiving — The receiving agent's LLM sees the intent both in the message content (conversation history) and in its structured output schema (a per-call docstring that includes the sender, the intent, and a reply protocol). This double reinforcement ensures the LLM knows how to respond — even when the conversation history contains multiple interleaved exchanges.

AgentMessage

All inter-agent communication uses a single AgentMessage type:

class AgentMessage(Message):
    type: Literal["request", "response", "notification", "instruction", "acknowledgment"] = "request"
    content: str

The type field carries the sender's intent through the system. The first message is typically sent by an external system (e.g., HumanProxy) as a request with plain content. From there, each agent's LLM decides the intent it attaches to every outbound message.

StructuredOutput and Request

Each LLM call produces a StructuredOutput with a list of outbound Request objects:

class Request(BaseModel):
    message_type: Literal[
        "request",        # ask recipient to perform a task and reply to you with the result
        "instruction",    # direct recipient to perform a task, you may ask for acknowledgement
        "response",       # respond to a previous request
        "notification",   # send information to the recipient, no reply is expected
        "acknowledgment", # confirm receipt of an instruction, no reply is expected
    ]
    message: str
    recipient: str   # "@MemberName" (existing actor) or "RoleName" (triggers hiring)

class StructuredOutput(BaseModel):
    messages: list[Request] = []

The LLM chooses both the recipient and the intent for every outbound message. Request.message_type flows directly into the delivered AgentMessage.type, so every receiver sees the sender's intent as first-class data.

An empty list means the agent has nothing more to send — but the LLM still runs. A notification or acknowledgment means the output list should be empty, not that the LLM call is skipped. The message is still processed and added to the agent's context for future interactions.

Static Schema + Prompt-Carried Reply Protocol

act() reasons against the static StructuredOutput type directly — there is no per-call subclass and no type() metaprogramming on the hot path:

output = self._react_agent.run_sync(prompt, deps=self, output_type=StructuredOutput)

Request.recipient is a plain string with no enum constraint. Recipient validity is enforced at routing time in process_message(), not in the schema:

Recipient format	Resolution
@MemberName	get_team_member(name) → direct send (skipped if not found)
RoleName	hire_member(role) → create actor → send

The reply-protocol guidance lives where the LLM actually reads it — the prompt. receiveMsg_AgentMessage() prepends a one-line protocol (keyed on the incoming message type via REPLY_PROTOCOLS) to the raw content before handing it to process_message():

You received a request from @Human. Carry out the task, then respond to @Human.
You may also delegate to others.

<raw message content>

Note: This supersedes the schema-constrained-recipient + docstring-injection mechanism from Story 5.1 / ADR-004. The intent-driven 5-type protocol is unchanged — only its enforcement moved from a per-call schema to the prompt + routing-time validation.

Routing and Delivery

process_message() resolves each Request.recipient (see the table above) and sends the raw request.message as an AgentMessage. The sender does not enrich the content — the reply-protocol prefix is added by the receiving agent's receiveMsg_AgentMessage(), so the guidance is always keyed to the intent that agent actually received:

# In the receiver's receiveMsg_AgentMessage(), before process_message():
prompt = f"You received a request from @Manager. {reply_protocol}\n\n{message.content}"

On LLMUsageLimitError, the agent escalates to the first team member with role="human" via notify_human().

HumanProxy

HumanProxy extends UserProxy from akgentic-core. It serves two roles:

• Telemetry sink — receiveMsg_AgentMessage() pushes incoming messages into the event system. The consumer is pluggable: console printer, WebSocket to a frontend, WhatsApp, email, etc.
• Human input bridge — process_human_input() routes a human's reply back to the agent that asked.

# Send a message from the human to an agent
human_proxy = actor_system.proxy_tell(human_addr, HumanProxy)
human_proxy.send(agent_addr, AgentMessage(content="Do X"))

# Route a human reply back to the agent that asked
human_proxy.process_human_input("My answer", original_message)

Message Protocol

The 5-type intent protocol controls conversation flow. When an incoming message is received, the matching REPLY_PROTOCOLS instruction is prepended to the user prompt (not the output schema), so the LLM reads the guidance inline with the content:

Intent	Receiver instruction (REPLY_PROTOCOLS)
request	"Carry out the task, then respond to {sender}. You may also delegate to others."
response	"Analyse the response, then continue or end the exchange."
instruction	"Carry out the task, then acknowledge to {sender} if requested."
notification	"Informational message. No reply is expected."
acknowledgment	"No further action needed."

The protocol is soft guidance, not framework enforcement. The LLM is guided to send no further messages for notification and acknowledgment, but the framework processes whatever the LLM returns. This is intentional: LLMs are probabilistic, and rigid enforcement would be brittle.

No reply does not mean no processing. When the protocol says "return an empty list", the LLM still runs — it absorbs the message into its context, which may inform future decisions. The empty list simply means no outbound messages are sent.

Team Composition

AgentCard

Declarative role definition registered with the Orchestrator. Acts as a blueprint: agents can be instantiated from it on demand without hard-coding actor addresses.

AgentCard(
    role="Developer",
    description="Writes and reviews code",
    skills=["python", "testing"],
    agent_class="akgentic.agent.BaseAgent",   # FQCN string or class reference
    config=AgentConfig(...),
    routes_to=["Reviewer", "Tester"],         # roles this agent can hire
)

register_agent_profiles([card, ...]) stores cards in the Orchestrator so any agent can hire a role by name without knowing the class.

AgentCard.get_config_copy() returns a fresh AgentConfig suitable for createActor().

Dynamic Hiring

When process_message() sees recipient="Developer" (no @ prefix), it calls hire_member("Developer") which:

1. Looks up the AgentCard for "Developer" in the Orchestrator
2. Calls createActor(agent_class, config=card.get_config_copy())
3. Returns the new actor address for immediate message delivery

The LLM in the sending agent triggers this transparently by naming a role instead of a team member.

EventSubscriber

Attach an EventSubscriber to the Orchestrator to observe all messages and events:

class MessagePrinter(EventSubscriber):
    def on_message(self, message: Message) -> None:
        if isinstance(message, SentMessage):
            print(f"[{message.sender.name}] → {message.recipient.name}: {message.message.content}")
        elif isinstance(message, EventMessage) and isinstance(message.event, ToolCallEvent):
            print(f"TOOL: {message.event.tool_name}")

orchestrator_proxy.subscribe(MessagePrinter())

Configuration

AgentConfig

Extends BaseConfig from akgentic-core:

Field	Type	Default	Description
prompt	PromptTemplate	PromptTemplate()	Agent backstory rendered into AgentState.backstory and injected as LLM system prompt
model_cfg	ModelConfig	ModelConfig()	LLM provider, model name, API settings
runtime_cfg	RuntimeConfig	RuntimeConfig()	Retries, parallel tools, HTTP timeouts
usage_limits	UsageLimits	UsageLimits()	Token and request caps
max_help_requests	int	5	Maximum delegation depth before error
tools	list[ToolCard]	[]	Tool cards; TeamTool is always prepended automatically

AgentState

Runtime state extending BaseState:

Field	Type	Description
backstory	str	config.prompt rendered at on_start(), injected as LLM system context on every call

Tool Channels

ToolFactory organises tool cards into three channels:

Channel	Consumer	Examples
TOOL_CALL	LLM via pydantic-ai tools	hire_members(), fire_members(), web_search(), workspace_read()
SYSTEM_PROMPT	LLM system prompt (per call)	team roster, role profiles, backstory, mailbox notifications
COMMAND	Python caller	cmd_hire_member(), cmd_fire_member(), cmd_get_planning(), cmd_get_team_roster()

TeamTool is always prepended to config.tools if not already present, ensuring every BaseAgent can hire and fire members.

Programmatic Commands

Access via actor_system.proxy_ask(agent_addr, BaseAgent):

Command	Returns	Description
cmd_hire_member(role)	ActorAddress | str	Hire by role; returns error string on failure
cmd_fire_member(name)	str	Fire by name; returns confirmation or error
cmd_get_planning()	str	Full team planning text (requires PlanningTool)
cmd_get_team_roster()	str	Current team member list
cmd_get_role_profiles()	str	Available roles and descriptions
cmd_get_planning_task(id)	Task | str	Single planning task by ID
get_usage_summary(by_run)	AgentUsageSummary	Aggregated LLM usage and cost; queries orchestrator for LlmUsageEvents via aggregate_usage() from akgentic.llm. Pass by_run=True for per-run breakdown. Callable via Pykka proxy.

Media Expansion

When WorkspaceTool is in config.tools, act() expands inline file references before the LLM call:

!!file.png               → BinaryContent injected into the prompt
!!"my screenshot.png"   → same, for paths with spaces
!!*.png                  → glob — all matching files
!!nonexistent.png        → "!!_nonexistent.png_[Error: no image found]" forwarded to LLM

Expansion happens in act() before run_sync(). Errors and document hints ([=> Use workspace_read tool]) are forwarded to the LLM rather than silently dropped. Agents without WorkspaceTool are unaffected — the expansion block is a no-op.

Examples

cd packages/akgentic-agent
uv run python examples/simple_team.py

Script	Topic
simple_team.py	Three-role interactive team with search, workspace, planning, /commands, and /usage for per-agent cost reporting via EventSubscriber

See the Examples README for full descriptions and running instructions.

Documentation

• Agent Collaboration System — Collaboration model, routing mechanics, delegation patterns, and typed protocol walkthrough

Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• uv package manager

Setup

uv sync --all-packages --all-extras

Commands

# Run tests
uv run pytest packages/akgentic-agent/tests/

# Run tests with coverage
uv run pytest packages/akgentic-agent/tests/ --cov=akgentic.agent --cov-fail-under=80

# Lint
uv run ruff check packages/akgentic-agent/src/

# Format
uv run ruff format packages/akgentic-agent/src/

# Type check
uv run mypy packages/akgentic-agent/src/

CI Pipeline

The package uses GitHub Actions for continuous integration. On every push and pull request, the pipeline:

1. Checks out the full akgentic-quick-start workspace (with all submodules)
2. Overrides the akgentic-agent submodule with the current branch
3. Installs all dependencies via uv sync --all-packages --all-extras
4. Runs mypy (strict type checking)
5. Runs ruff (linting)
6. Runs pytest with coverage (minimum 80%, branch coverage enabled)
7. Updates the coverage badge gist on master pushes

Note: No pre-commit hooks are configured in this package. Quality checks run exclusively in CI.

Project Structure

src/akgentic/agent/
    __init__.py          # Public API: BaseAgent, AgentConfig, HumanProxy, AgentMessage
    agent.py             # BaseAgent — actor + LLM + tool composition, routing logic
    config.py            # AgentConfig, AgentState
    human_proxy.py       # HumanProxy — human-in-the-loop bridge
    messages.py          # AgentMessage with typed protocol
    output_models.py     # StructuredOutput, Request, REPLY_PROTOCOLS
examples/                # Runnable examples with README
tests/                   # Tests organised by module
docs/
    agent-collaboration.md

License

See the repository root for license information.