dao-ai 0.1.3

DAO AI: A modular, multi-agent orchestration framework for complex AI workflows. Supports agent handoff, tool integration, and dynamic configuration via YAML.

DAO: Declarative Agent Orchestration

Production-grade AI agents defined in YAML, powered by LangGraph, deployed on Databricks.

DAO is an infrastructure-as-code framework for building, deploying, and managing multi-agent AI systems. Instead of writing boilerplate Python code to wire up agents, tools, and orchestration, you define everything declaratively in YAML configuration files.

# Define an agent in 10 lines of YAML
agents:
  product_expert:
    name: product_expert
    model: *claude_sonnet
    tools:
      - *vector_search_tool
      - *genie_tool
    prompt: |
      You are a product expert. Answer questions about inventory and pricing.

🎨 Visual Configuration Studio

Prefer a visual interface? Check out DAO AI Builder — a React-based web application that provides a graphical interface for creating and editing DAO configurations. Perfect for:

• Exploring DAO's capabilities through an intuitive UI
• Learning the configuration structure with guided forms
• Building agents visually without writing YAML manually
• Importing and editing existing configurations

DAO AI Builder generates valid YAML configurations that work seamlessly with this framework. Use whichever workflow suits you best — visual builder or direct YAML editing.

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📚 Documentation

Getting Started

• Why DAO? - Learn what DAO is and how it compares to other platforms
• Quick Start - Build and deploy your first agent in minutes
• Architecture - Understand how DAO works under the hood

Core Concepts

• Key Capabilities - Explore 14 powerful features for production agents
• Configuration Reference - Complete YAML configuration guide
• Examples - Ready-to-use example configurations

Reference

• CLI Reference - Command-line interface documentation
• Python API - Programmatic usage and customization
• FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Contributing

• Contributing Guide - How to contribute to DAO

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you'll need:

• Python 3.11 or newer installed on your computer (download here)
• A Databricks workspace (ask your IT team or see Databricks docs)
  • Access to Unity Catalog (your organization's data catalog)
  • Model Serving enabled (for deploying AI agents)
  • Optional: Vector Search, Genie (for advanced features)

Not sure if you have access? Your Databricks administrator can grant you permissions.

Installation

Option 1: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

The simplest way to get started:

# Install directly from PyPI
pip install dao-ai

Option 2: For developers familiar with Git

# Clone this repository
git clone <repo-url>
cd dao-ai

# Create an isolated Python environment
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install DAO and its dependencies
make install

Option 3: For those new to development

1. Download this project as a ZIP file (click the green "Code" button on GitHub → Download ZIP)
2. Extract the ZIP file to a folder on your computer
3. Open a terminal/command prompt and navigate to that folder
4. Run these commands:

# On Mac/Linux:
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

# On Windows:
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

Verification: Run dao-ai --version to confirm the installation succeeded.

Your First Agent

Let's build a simple AI assistant in 4 steps. This agent will use a language model from Databricks to answer questions.

Step 1: Create a configuration file

Create a new file called config/my_agent.yaml and paste this content:

schemas:
  my_schema: &my_schema
    catalog_name: my_catalog        # Replace with your Unity Catalog name
    schema_name: my_schema          # Replace with your schema name

resources:
  llms:
    default_llm: &default_llm
      name: databricks-meta-llama-3-3-70b-instruct  # The AI model to use

agents:
  assistant: &assistant
    name: assistant
    model: *default_llm
    prompt: |
      You are a helpful assistant.

app:
  name: my_first_agent
  registered_model:
    schema: *my_schema
    name: my_first_agent
  agents:
    - *assistant
  orchestration:
    swarm:
      model: *default_llm

💡 What's happening here?

• schemas: Points to your Unity Catalog location (where the agent will be registered)
• resources: Defines the AI model (Llama 3.3 70B in this case)
• agents: Describes your assistant agent and its behavior
• app: Configures how the agent is deployed and orchestrated

Step 2: Validate your configuration

This checks for errors in your YAML file:

dao-ai validate -c config/my_agent.yaml

You should see: ✅ Configuration is valid!

Step 3: Visualize the agent workflow (optional)

Generate a diagram showing how your agent works:

dao-ai graph -c config/my_agent.yaml -o my_agent.png

This creates my_agent.png — open it to see a visual representation of your agent.

Step 4: Deploy to Databricks

Option A: Using Python (programmatic deployment)

from dao_ai.config import AppConfig

# Load your configuration
config = AppConfig.from_file("config/my_agent.yaml")

# Package the agent as an MLflow model
config.create_agent()

# Deploy to Databricks Model Serving
config.deploy_agent()

Option B: Using the CLI (one command)

dao-ai bundle --deploy --run -c config/my_agent.yaml

This single command:

1. Validates your configuration
2. Packages the agent
3. Deploys it to Databricks
4. Creates a serving endpoint

Step 5: Interact with your agent

Once deployed, you can chat with your agent using Python:

from mlflow.deployments import get_deploy_client

# Connect to your Databricks workspace
client = get_deploy_client("databricks")

# Send a message to your agent
response = client.predict(
    endpoint="my_first_agent",
    inputs={
        "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello! What can you help me with?"}],
        "configurable": {
            "thread_id": "1",           # Conversation ID
            "user_id": "demo_user"      # User identifier
        }
    }
)

# Print the agent's response
print(response["message"]["content"])

🎉 Congratulations! You've built and deployed your first AI agent with DAO.

Next steps:

• Explore the config/examples/ folder for more advanced configurations
• Try the DAO AI Builder visual interface
• Learn about Key Capabilities to add advanced features
• Read the Architecture documentation to understand how it works

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Key Features at a Glance

DAO provides powerful capabilities for building production-ready AI agents:

Feature	Description
Multi-Tool Support	Python functions, Unity Catalog, MCP, Agent Endpoints
On-Behalf-Of User	Per-user permissions and governance
Advanced Caching	Two-tier (LRU + Semantic) caching for cost optimization
Vector Search Reranking	Improve RAG quality with FlashRank
Human-in-the-Loop	Approval workflows for sensitive operations
Memory & Persistence	PostgreSQL, Lakebase, or in-memory state
Prompt Registry	Version and manage prompts in MLflow
Prompt Optimization	Automated tuning with GEPA (Generative Evolution of Prompts and Agents)
Guardrails	Content filters, safety checks, validation
Middleware	Input validation, logging, performance monitoring, audit trails
Conversation Summarization	Handle long conversations automatically
Structured Output	JSON schema for predictable responses
Custom I/O	Flexible input/output with runtime state
Hook System	Lifecycle hooks for initialization and cleanup

👉 Learn more: Key Capabilities Documentation

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Architecture Overview

graph TB
    subgraph yaml["YAML Configuration"]
        direction LR
        schemas[Schemas] ~~~ resources[Resources] ~~~ tools[Tools] ~~~ agents[Agents] ~~~ orchestration[Orchestration]
    end
    
    subgraph dao["DAO Framework (Python)"]
        direction LR
        config[Config<br/>Loader] ~~~ graph_builder[Graph<br/>Builder] ~~~ nodes[Nodes<br/>Factory] ~~~ tool_factory[Tool<br/>Factory]
    end
    
    subgraph langgraph["LangGraph Runtime"]
        direction LR
        msg_hook[Message<br/>Hook] --> supervisor[Supervisor/<br/>Swarm] --> specialized[Specialized<br/>Agents]
    end
    
    subgraph databricks["Databricks Platform"]
        direction LR
        model_serving[Model<br/>Serving] ~~~ unity_catalog[Unity<br/>Catalog] ~~~ vector_search[Vector<br/>Search] ~~~ genie_spaces[Genie<br/>Spaces] ~~~ mlflow[MLflow]
    end
    
    yaml ==> dao
    dao ==> langgraph
    langgraph ==> databricks
    
    style yaml fill:#1B5162,stroke:#618794,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff
    style dao fill:#FFAB00,stroke:#7D5319,stroke-width:3px,color:#1B3139
    style langgraph fill:#618794,stroke:#143D4A,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff
    style databricks fill:#00875C,stroke:#095A35,stroke-width:3px,color:#fff

👉 Learn more: Architecture Documentation

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Example Configurations

The config/examples/ directory contains ready-to-use configurations organized in a progressive learning path:

• 01_getting_started/minimal.yaml - Simplest possible agent
• 02_tools/vector_search_with_reranking.yaml - RAG with improved accuracy
• 04_genie/genie_semantic_cache.yaml - NL-to-SQL with two-tier caching
• 05_memory/conversation_summarization.yaml - Long conversation handling
• 06_on_behalf_of_user/obo_basic.yaml - User-level access control
• 07_human_in_the_loop/human_in_the_loop.yaml - Approval workflows

And many more! Follow the numbered path or jump to what you need. See the full guide in Examples Documentation.

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CLI Quick Reference

# Validate configuration
dao-ai validate -c config/my_config.yaml

# Generate JSON schema for IDE support
dao-ai schema > schemas/model_config_schema.json

# Visualize agent workflow
dao-ai graph -c config/my_config.yaml -o workflow.png

# Deploy with Databricks Asset Bundles
dao-ai bundle --deploy --run -c config/my_config.yaml

# Interactive chat with agent
dao-ai chat -c config/my_config.yaml

👉 Learn more: CLI Reference Documentation

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Community & Support

• Documentation: docs/
• Examples: config/examples/
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for details on:

• Setting up your development environment
• Code style and testing guidelines
• How to submit pull requests
• Project structure overview

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.