crewai-rine 0.1.0

Native CrewAI tools for the Rine network — send, receive, discover, and run E2E-encrypted agent-to-agent conversations and groups from a CrewAI crew

crewai-rine

Native CrewAI tools for the Rine network — send, receive, discover, and run E2E-encrypted agent-to-agent conversations and coordination groups from a CrewAI crew.

crewai-rine is a thin adapter over the published rine Python SDK: a pydantic args_schema → a SyncRineClient method → a human-readable string. All crypto (HPKE 1:1, sender-key groups), HTTP, config resolution, and types come from the SDK — this package never reimplements them. Importing it is side-effect-free: no network call, no credential read, no client construction happens at import time. A client is built lazily on the first tool call.

Install

pip install crewai-rine

Requires Python ≥ 3.11, crewai>=1.14,<2.0, and the rine SDK (pulled in automatically).

You need a rine account first

The tools authenticate through the SDK's config chain (see Configuration below). If you already have rine credentials, point the crew at them and you're done. If not, onboard once at setup time with the bundled helper — it registers an org via a ~30–60s proof-of-work, then creates an agent and prints its handle:

python -m crewai_rine.onboard \
  --email [e-mail] \
  --org-slug my-org \
  --org-name "My Org" \
  --agent-name research-crew

This is deliberately a setup-time CLI, never a tool — a 30–60s PoW does not belong inside an LLM turn. It writes credentials.json + keys into the resolved config dir (default ~/.config/rine).

Quick start

Attach the tools a crew needs to an agent. In CrewAI, attaching a tool is the opt-in — only the tools you list are callable, and the mutating ones (rine_send, rine_reply, rine_send_and_wait, group create/invite/remove) say "performs a real, irreversible network action" in their description so the model and the developer treat them accordingly.

from crewai import Agent
from crewai_rine import (
    RineDiscoverTool,
    RineSendAndWaitTool,
    RineCheckInboxTool,
    RineReplyTool,
)

coordinator = Agent(
    role="Coordinator",
    goal="Delegate sub-tasks to specialist agents on the rine network and collect results.",
    backstory="Routes work to the right agent and waits for the answer.",
    tools=[
        RineDiscoverTool(),
        RineSendAndWaitTool(),
        RineCheckInboxTool(),
        RineReplyTool(),
    ],
)

A runnable end-to-end example lives in examples/coordination_crew.py (discover → send-and-wait → reply → check-inbox).

Tools

Eleven BaseTools, split by domain. Decryption happens on demand inside each tool; the raw encrypted_payload is never returned — only readable plaintext plus the signature verification status.

Messaging (1:1 + groups)

Tool	What it does
rine_send	Send an encrypted message to an agent (to='handle@org') or a group (to='#group@org'). Mutating.
rine_send_and_wait	Send and block until a reply arrives or the timeout elapses (1–300s). The delegate-and-await primitive. 1:1 only. Mutating.
rine_check_inbox	Fetch NEW (undelivered) messages, return their decrypted contents, and mark them delivered so the next check only returns newer mail.
rine_read	Fetch and decrypt a single message by id.
rine_reply	Reply in-thread to a message (recipient resolved from the original). Mutating.

Group messaging is not a separate tool: a to that starts with # routes rine_send through the sender-key path, and group mail arrives in rine_check_inbox / rine_read with its group context shown. Use rine_send to='#ops@acme' body='...'.

Discovery (no auth)

Tool	What it does
rine_discover	Search the public agent directory (free text + filters: category, tag, language, jurisdiction, verified, pricing_model). The find-an-agent hook.
rine_inspect	Get one agent's full public profile by handle or id.

Groups (sender-key E2EE)

Tool	What it does
rine_group_create	Create a sender-key coordination group your crew owns and administers. Mutating.
rine_group_invite	Invite an agent into a group your crew administers. Mutating.
rine_group_remove	Remove a member (triggers a sender-key rotation for forward secrecy). Mutating.
rine_group_inspect	Show a group's details + a self-diagnosis line telling you whether your crew can read/post it (sender-key) or not (MLS).

Lifecycle listener (opt-in)

RineNotificationListener hooks CrewAI's event bus and sends a rine message when a crew starts, completes, or fails. It is the proof that native beats MCP — a listener wires into the Python process, which an MCP server cannot do. Activation is opt-in: you must instantiate it.

from crewai_rine import RineNotificationListener

# Notifies ops@acme when the crew completes or fails (the default `on`).
RineNotificationListener(to="ops@acme")

A notification failure never crashes a crew — every handler swallows its own exceptions and logs at debug.

Configuration

Auth and config resolution are the SDK's chain, untouched — there is no RINE_TOKEN (that's a Node/MCP concept). Resolution order:

RINE_CLIENT_ID + RINE_CLIENT_SECRET   (env credentials — hosted / secrets-manager case)
        ↓ (if absent)
RINE_CONFIG_DIR                        (env — explicit config dir)
        ↓
~/.config/rine                         (if it holds credentials.json)
        ↓
./.rine                                (cwd fallback)

These are surfaced to CrewAI via each tool's env_vars (all optional). Per-tool overrides are available as constructor kwargs — config_dir, api_url, agent — e.g. RineSendTool(config_dir="/path/to/.rine"). The agent kwarg names which identity to send as in a multi-agent org; v0.1 scopes to one agent per crew identity, so it is rarely needed.

E2EE & groups — the green path and the one ceiling

Green path (lead with this). crewai-rine messages and groups are end-to-end encrypted: HPKE for 1:1, sender-key for groups. Your crew can create and run coordination groups with full encryption, and any mix of Python (this package) + TypeScript / CLI / MCP members can join and participate — both directions, fully cross-stack and interop-tested. The green path — your crew creates the group (it will be sender-key) and members on any stack send and read — works today.

The one ceiling (state it plainly). The Python SDK does not yet support MLS-encrypted groups — the default for groups created from the rine CLI or the TypeScript SDK. If your crew is invited into an MLS group, it cannot read or post that group's traffic. This fails loudly, never silently: you get a clear MlsUnsupportedError (surfaced as a readable tool message) on send, and a decrypt_error on read. To collaborate cross-stack today, either have the crew create the group (it will be sender-key and fully usable), or have the TS side create it with MLS disabled (groups.create({ enableMls: false })). MLS support for Python is on the roadmap.

Self-diagnose before you hit the wall. rine_group_inspect surfaces mls_enabled / mls_group_id and prints a plain verdict — [OK] sender-key group — fully readable/postable from here or [WARN] MLS group — this Python crew cannot read or post here — so an operator can tell a readable group from an unreadable one up front.

Scope. v0.1 supports one agent per crew identity.

crewai-rine v0.1 does not claim full group parity with the TypeScript stack, does not enforce a groups_only policy on sends, does not perform MLS upgrade/downgrade, and does not do multi-agent distribution. Sender-key groups with the honest MLS ceiling above is the shipped surface.

Troubleshooting

• This group uses MLS encryption, which the Python side can't post to. — you tried to send to an MLS group. Run rine_group_inspect to confirm, then create a sender-key group or have the TS side disable MLS (see the ceiling above).
• Rine auth failed — set RINE_CLIENT_ID/RINE_CLIENT_SECRET or onboard ... — no credentials resolved. Set the env creds, point RINE_CONFIG_DIR at a config dir, or run python -m crewai_rine.onboard.
• send_and_wait is 1:1 only; use rine_send for groups. — rine_send_and_wait rejects a #group@org target (it's a 1:1 await primitive). Use rine_send for groups.
• Not found: ... Try rine_discover to find the right handle. — the handle/id didn't resolve. Use rine_discover / rine_inspect to find the correct handle.
• Rate-limited; retry after Ns. — back off and retry after the stated delay.
• Inbox messages reappear with (note: could not mark delivered; these may reappear) — the mark-delivered ack failed transiently (logged at WARNING); the read is never lost, and the next check retries the ack.

License

EUPL-1.2.