lovia 0.6.11

A lightweight and elegant Agent framework

lovia

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lovia is an elegant, restrained Python framework for developers who want to own the agent loop without rebuilding every supporting primitive from scratch. It gives you the pieces most agent apps eventually need — tools, streaming, structured output, sessions, handoff, approvals, guardrails, workspaces, skills, MCP, context compaction, checkpoint/resume, and a tiny web UI — while keeping the core direct enough to read, replace, and extend.

The core abstractions are few:

• an Agent is immutable configuration;
• a Runner executes one run;
• a @tool is just a typed Python function;
• Handoff and agent.as_tool() are the two atomic ways to compose agents;
• plugins package reusable capability without taking over control flow. MCP, Skills, Todo, and long-term memory can all be expressed as plugins.

That is the tradeoff: handle the recurring hard parts of agent applications, but avoid turning the framework into a platform.

pip install lovia

import asyncio
from lovia import Agent, Runner, Skills, Todo, tool
from lovia.workspace import Workspace


@tool
def lookup_ticket(ticket_id: str) -> str:
    """Look up an internal support ticket."""
    return f"{ticket_id}: waiting for customer reply"


async def main() -> None:
    agent = Agent(
        name="operator",
        instructions=(
            "You are a customer-support operator. "
            "Before replying, confirm the ticket state, then use team policy "
            "to give a clear, restrained, actionable response."
        ),
        model="deepseek-v4-pro",
        tools=[lookup_ticket],
        plugins=[Todo(), Skills("./skills")],
        workspace=Workspace.local(".", mode="trusted"),
    )
    result = await Runner.run(
        agent,
        "Check ticket T-1001 and draft a reply using our team guidelines.",
    )
    print(result.output)


asyncio.run(main())

Here ./skills points at your team's skill directory; remove Skills("./skills") until you have one.

Set OPENAI_API_KEY for the official OpenAI endpoint, or set OPENAI_BASE_URL for OpenAI-compatible services such as DeepSeek, Ollama, or vLLM. Anthropic is built in too: model="anthropic:claude-4-8-opus".

Why lovia

lovia favors composable primitives over a new universe of abstractions. It stays close to ordinary Python: dataclasses, protocols, async functions, and explicit composition.

• It is readable. lovia/runner.py is a facade; the mutable run state lives in lovia/runtime/loop.py. When something surprises you, the path through the code is short.
• It is provider-neutral without an adapter tax. Built-in providers speak OpenAI Chat Completions and Anthropic Messages directly over httpx. A custom provider is a Protocol, not a subclassing project.
• Context management is replaceable. The default Compaction changes only what the model sees on the next call. Sessions and checkpoints keep the full transcript, and advanced users can provide their own ContextPolicy.
• Multi-agent composition stays atomic. Handoff transfers control to a specialist agent; agent-as-tool delegates a bounded subtask. Both are primitives, not an orchestration DSL you have to adopt wholesale.
• It has production seams, not a production costume. Approvals, budgets, cancellation, retries, hooks, scoped workspace tools, and checkpoint/resume are explicit knobs you can wire into your own app.
• It has one extension axis. Plugins bundle tools, prompt additions, per-turn view injectors, hooks, guardrails, and cleanup. Skills, MCP, todo lists, and long-term memory can use the same mechanism.

Start small, add only what you need

You can use lovia as a tiny wrapper around a model call, then add capabilities only when the product asks for them.

When you need...	Add...
A quick script or notebook helper	Agent.run_sync(...)
Tool calling	@tool functions
Typed final answers	output_type=YourModel
Live UI updates	Runner.stream(...) and typed events
Multi-turn chat	SQLiteSession or your own Session
Long-running work	CheckpointOptions
Multi-agent routing or delegation	handoffs=[...] or agent.as_tool()
Human approval	@tool(needs_approval=True)
Files and shell commands	Workspace.local(...)
Long context survival	Compaction plus optional recall_tool_result
Custom context behavior	implement your own ContextPolicy
Reusable capabilities	PluginInstance, Skills, Todo, or MCP

Philosophy

lovia optimizes for four things, in this order. The order matters.

1. Concise. A feature should fit in your head. The public surface should be obvious, and internals should be readable when you need to debug.
2. Lightweight. The core should import quickly, install cleanly, and avoid dragging in infrastructure you did not ask for.
3. Extensible. Real applications need their own providers, storage, policies, tools, and UI. lovia gives you seams instead of lock-in.
4. General-purpose. The built-ins are practical, but not magical. They are examples of the same extension points you can use yourself.

The design pressure is restraint. If a feature can be a short user-side recipe, it should not become framework surface area. If it belongs in the framework, it should compose with the existing loop instead of creating a new one.

How the pieces fit

Each run follows the same shape:

Agent + input
  -> RunLoop loads session/checkpoint state
  -> plugins contribute tools, instructions, hooks, guardrails, view injectors
  -> context policy renders a per-call model view
  -> provider streams typed deltas
  -> tools, approvals, handoff, guardrails, and hooks run at explicit checkpoints
  -> full transcript is persisted back to session/checkpoint

Two boundaries are worth remembering:

• Session vs checkpoint. A Session is conversation memory across calls. A checkpoint is a crash-recovery snapshot for one idempotent run.
• Transcript vs view. The transcript is the source of truth. Context compaction only renders a smaller view for the provider, so long conversations can keep moving without rewriting history.

The Core API

Agent

Agent is declarative runtime configuration. It has no conversation state, so it is safe to reuse across requests.

from lovia import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="writer",
    instructions="Write concrete, concise answers.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
)

Dynamic prompt fragments can depend on per-run context:

@agent.system_prompt
async def user_tier(ctx) -> str:
    return f"User tier: {ctx.context['tier']}"

Create request-specific variants with clone():

strict = agent.clone(instructions="Answer with citations only.")

Runner

from lovia import Runner

result = await Runner.run(agent, "Draft a release note.")
print(result.output)

For scripts and REPLs you can call the agent directly:

result = agent.run_sync("Summarize this file.")

The handle returned by stream() is both async-iterable and awaitable:

from lovia import events

handle = Runner.stream(agent, "Explain context windows in one paragraph.")

async for ev in handle:
    if isinstance(ev, events.TextDelta):
        print(ev.delta, end="", flush=True)

result = await handle.result()

Tools

Any typed Python callable can become a tool. lovia derives the tool schema from type hints, docstrings, Annotated, and Pydantic Field metadata.

from typing import Annotated
from pydantic import Field
from lovia import tool


@tool
async def lookup_order(order_id: str) -> str:
    """Look up an order by id."""
    return f"{order_id}: shipped"


@tool(strict=True)
def search_docs(
    query: Annotated[str, "Search terms"],
    limit: Annotated[int, Field(ge=1, le=10)] = 5,
) -> list[str]:
    """Search internal documentation."""
    return []

Sync tools run in a worker thread. Async tools are awaited directly.

Structured Output

Pass a Pydantic model, dataclass, TypedDict, or supported Python type and the final result is validated for you. If parsing fails, lovia asks the model once to repair the response by default.

from pydantic import BaseModel
from lovia import Agent, Runner


class Brief(BaseModel):
    title: str
    bullets: list[str]


agent = Agent(
    name="summarizer",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    output_type=Brief,
)

result = await Runner.run(agent, "Summarize lovia for a Python developer.")
print(result.output.title)

You can override output type per call:

result = await Runner.run(agent, "Return a launch checklist.", output_type=list[str])

Provider Choice

Use a model string, a provider instance, or a fallback chain:

from lovia import Agent, ModelSettings

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    model=[
        "anthropic:claude-4-8-opus",
        "deepseek-v4-pro",
    ],
    settings=ModelSettings(temperature=0.2, max_tokens=800),
)

Custom providers implement the Provider protocol and can be registered with the lovia.providers entry-point group.

Multi-Agent Workflows

Handoff

Handoff lets one agent transfer control to a specialist. The transcript follows the handoff, optionally filtered.

from lovia import Agent, Handoff, Runner

billing = Agent(name="billing", instructions="Handle billing issues.", model="deepseek-v4-pro")
support = Agent(name="support", instructions="Handle technical issues.", model="deepseek-v4-pro")

triage = Agent(
    name="triage",
    instructions="Route the user to the right specialist.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    handoffs=[billing, support],
)

result = await Runner.run(triage, "I was charged twice.")

Agent As Tool

Use an agent as a delegated subroutine:

summarizer = Agent(
    name="summarizer",
    instructions="Summarize text in five bullets.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
)

manager = Agent(
    name="manager",
    instructions="Delegate summarization when useful.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    tools=[summarizer.as_tool(description="Summarize a passage.")],
)

The sub-agent runs in its own loop and returns its final output as the tool result.

Human Control

Tool Approval

Gate sensitive actions with needs_approval=True.

from lovia import tool


@tool(needs_approval=True)
async def refund(order_id: str, amount_cents: int) -> str:
    """Issue a refund."""
    return "refunded"

In streaming mode, resolve approvals from your UI:

from lovia import events

handle = Runner.stream(agent, "Refund order A123.")

async for ev in handle:
    if isinstance(ev, events.ApprovalRequired):
        ev.approve()          # or ev.reject()

For server-side policy:

agent = Agent(
    ...,
    approval_handler=lambda call, ctx: "ask" if call.name == "refund" else "allow"
)

Ask A Human

ask_human lets the model request operator input through your application.

from lovia.tools.human import HumanChannel, ask_human

channel = HumanChannel()

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    tools=[ask_human(channel)],
)

# Somewhere in your UI/event loop:
for question in channel.pending:
    channel.answer(question.id, "Use option A.")

Sessions and Checkpoints

Sessions persist conversation transcript across calls:

from lovia.stores import SQLiteSession

session = SQLiteSession("chat.db")

await Runner.run(agent, "My project is called Atlas.", session=session, session_id="u1")
result = await Runner.run(agent, "What is my project called?", session=session, session_id="u1")

Checkpoints are for crash recovery and idempotent long runs:

from lovia import CheckpointOptions
from lovia.stores import SQLiteCheckpointer

checkpoint = SQLiteCheckpointer("runs.db")

result = await Runner.run(
    agent,
    "Migrate the report format.",
    checkpoint=CheckpointOptions(checkpoint, "report-migration-42"),
)

Context Management

Long conversations use Compaction by default. It is view-only: the full transcript stays in the session/checkpoint, while the per-model-call view can offload huge tool results, clear older tool results, and summarize old history under token pressure.

from lovia import Compaction, Runner

policy = Compaction(
    context_window=200_000,
    compact_at=0.75,
    compact_to=0.50,
)

result = await Runner.run(agent, "Continue.", context_policy=policy)

Add recall_tool_result when you want the model to recover a compacted tool result without re-running the tool:

from lovia.tools import recall_tool_result

agent = agent.clone(tools=[*agent.tools, recall_tool_result])

Use NoopContextPolicy() to disable automatic compaction.

Guardrails, Reliability, Hooks

Input and output guardrails are async callables. Raise GuardrailTripped or return a truthy violation message to stop the run.

from lovia.exceptions import GuardrailTripped


async def no_email_addresses(messages, ctx):
    if any("@" in str(m.content) for m in messages):
        raise GuardrailTripped("Email addresses are not allowed.")


async def must_cite(output, ctx):
    if "source:" not in output.lower():
        return "Missing source citation."


agent = Agent(
    name="researcher",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    input_guardrails=[no_email_addresses],
    output_guardrails=[must_cite],
)

Budgets, cancellation, and retry policies are explicit:

from lovia import RetryPolicy, RunBudget

result = await Runner.run(
    agent,
    "Analyze these logs.",
    budget=RunBudget(max_tool_calls=20, max_seconds=60),
    retry=RetryPolicy(max_attempts=3),
)

Lifecycle hooks receive the same typed events used by streaming:

from lovia import events
from lovia.hooks import AgentHooks

hooks = AgentHooks()


@hooks.on(events.ToolCallStarted)
async def log_tool(ev):
    print(ev.call.name, ev.call.arguments)


agent = agent.clone(hooks=hooks)

Built-In Tools

Nothing is imported into your agent automatically. Pick the tools you want.

from lovia.tools.http import http_fetch
from lovia.tools.search import duckduckgo_search

agent = Agent(
    name="researcher",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    tools=[http_fetch, duckduckgo_search()],
)

Install DuckDuckGo search support with:

pip install "lovia[ddg]"

Custom search is just a WebSearch implementation passed to web_search().

Plugins

A plugin is lovia's one extension axis for bundling a feature.

A single object contributes any mix of: tools, system-prompt instructions, per-turn view_injectors (transient reminders, never written to the transcript), event hooks, and input_guardrails / output_guardrails.

The runner activates each plugin once per run (and once per agent on a handoff) by awaiting its async setup(), and releases anything it opened via aclose() when the run ends.

Plugins are purely additive — they never drive control flow; the loop keeps the abort, retry, and handoff. Skills, MCP, and the todo list below are all built-in plugins.

Todo lists

The built-in todo plugin gives the model a checklist tool and re-shows the current list every turn, without bloating the persisted transcript:

from lovia import Agent, Runner, Todo

agent = Agent(
    name="builder",
    instructions="Complete multi-step work carefully.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    plugins=[Todo()],
)

await Runner.run(agent, "Implement a small REST API with tests and docs.")

Skills

Skills are reusable instruction bundles following the Agent Skills specification. lovia exposes skill metadata up front, then lets the model load full instructions and referenced files only when needed.

from lovia import Agent, Skills

agent = Agent(
    name="support",
    instructions="Help customers using the right policy.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    plugins=[Skills("./skills")],
)

A skill directory holds SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter, plus optional references/, scripts/, and assets/ files. Pass several directories, or scope the catalog with a filter:

plugins=[Skills("./skills", "./team-skills")]
plugins=[Skills("./skills", filter=lambda meta: "internal" not in meta.extra.get("tags", []))]

For a custom backend, pass a SkillSource (or a pre-built SkillCategory) instead of paths.

MCP

Model Context Protocol servers expose their tools to the agent. Install the optional dependency:

pip install "lovia[mcp]"

from lovia import Agent
from lovia.plugins.mcp import MCPServerStdio, MCP

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    plugins=[
        MCP(MCPServerStdio(name="web", command="uvx", args=["mcp-server-fetch"]))
    ],
)

By default each run opens and closes the server. To reuse one connection across runs, open a session and pass the live connection instead:

server = MCPServerStdio(name="web", command="uvx", args=["mcp-server-fetch"])

async with server.session() as conn:
    agent = Agent(name="assistant", model="deepseek-v4-pro", plugins=[MCP(conn)])
    await Runner.run(agent, "Fetch https://example.com and summarize it.")

MCP() takes several servers — MCP(a, b) — and MCPServer.name prefixes a server's tools (web__fetch) to keep names unique.

Writing a plugin

A plugin is any object with a name and an async setup() that returns a PluginInstance.

State that should be fresh per run is built inside setup (like the todo list above); state that should persist across runs and sessions is held on the plugin and passed in at construction.

Here is a long-term memory plugin — it wraps a backend you supply, created once and shared by every run, so the agent can recall a fact from one conversation in the next:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Protocol

from lovia import Agent, PluginInstance, tool


class MemoryStore(Protocol):
    """Your long-term backend — implement it over a vector DB, SQLite, etc."""

    async def add(self, fact: str) -> None: ...
    async def search(self, query: str, k: int) -> list[str]: ...


@dataclass
class MemoryPlugin:
    """Cross-session long-term memory the agent can write to and search."""

    store: MemoryStore  # long-lived, shared by every run — not rebuilt per run
    name: str = "memory"

    async def setup(self) -> PluginInstance:
        store = self.store

        @tool
        async def remember(fact: str) -> str:
            """Save a durable fact to recall in any later session."""
            await store.add(fact)
            return "Saved to long-term memory."

        @tool
        async def recall(query: str) -> str:
            """Search long-term memory for facts relevant to the query."""
            hits = await store.search(query, k=5)
            return "\n".join(f"- {h}" for h in hits) or "(nothing relevant)"

        return PluginInstance(
            tools=[remember, recall],
            instructions=(
                "You have long-term memory that persists across sessions. Call "
                "`recall` to check it before answering, and `remember` to store "
                "durable facts or preferences the user shares."
            ),
        )


store = MyVectorStore()  # your MemoryStore: just async add() and search()
agent = Agent(name="assistant", model="deepseek-v4-pro", plugins=[MemoryPlugin(store)])

Because that backend is shared across (possibly concurrent) runs it must be safe for concurrent use, and the plugin never closes it — its lifecycle belongs to whoever created it. (Contrast the todo plugin, whose store is rebuilt inside setup for each run.)

PluginInstance carries any subset of these contributions:

Field	Effect
tools	merged into the agent's tool set
instructions	appended to the system prompt
view_injectors	entries appended to the model's view each turn — never persisted
hooks	an AgentHooks that observes run events (metrics, audit, …)
input_guardrails / output_guardrails	run at the loop's checkpoints, with the agent's own; the loop keeps the abort
aclose	coroutine awaited at run end to release resources opened in setup

Workspace Agents

Workspace adds file and shell tools scoped to a root directory and permission policy.

from lovia import Agent
from lovia.workspace import CommandRule, Workspace

agent = Agent(
    name="coder",
    instructions="Make small, targeted code changes.",
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    workspace=Workspace.local(
        ".",
        mode="coding",
        denied_paths=(".env*",),
        command_rules=(
            CommandRule("pytest", "allow"),
            CommandRule("rm -rf", "deny"),
        ),
    ),
)

Modes:

Mode	Tools
readonly	read_file, list_files, grep_files
coding	read tools plus write_file, edit_file, shell with approval by default
trusted	coding tools with shell allowed by default

Workspace paths are root-relative; absolute paths, .. escapes, and symlink escapes are rejected. The local shell still runs as the host user, so use containerized or remote workspace backends when you need hard isolation.

Web UI

The optional web layer is a small FastAPI app with SSE streaming, sessions, markdown rendering, and approval routes.

pip install "lovia[web]"

from lovia.web import serve

serve(agent, host="127.0.0.1", port=8000, db_path="lovia.db")

Examples

The examples/ directory is a set of runnable scripts. A useful reading order:

Path	What it shows
examples/01_hello.py	minimal agent
examples/02_tools.py	tool calling
examples/03_streaming.py	streaming events
examples/04_structured_output.py	validated output
examples/05_handoff.py	specialist handoff
examples/06_agent_as_tool.py	delegate to an agent as a tool
examples/07_session.py	persisted chat history
examples/08_skills.py	reusable skill instruction bundles
examples/10_hooks.py	lifecycle event hooks
examples/11_approval.py	human-in-the-loop approval
examples/14_guardrails.py	input/output guardrails
examples/15_resume.py	checkpoint and resume
examples/16_web_serve.py	built-in web UI
examples/18_context_policy.py	view-only context compaction
examples/21_dx.py	sync calls, per-call output types, and other DX shortcuts
examples/23_workspace_agent.py	scoped coding workspace
examples/25_data_analysis.py	data analysis agent
examples/26_mcp.py	MCP server tools
examples/27_todos.py	todo plugin and per-turn reminders
examples/workflows/	prompt chaining, routing, parallelization, evaluator loops, autonomous agents

Install Extras

Need	Install
Core framework	pip install lovia
DuckDuckGo search	pip install "lovia[ddg]"
MCP integration	pip install "lovia[mcp]"
Web UI	pip install "lovia[web]"
Runnable examples	pip install "lovia[examples,web]"
Development	pip install -e ".[dev]"

examples contains dependencies used only by runnable demos, such as python-dotenv, rich, prefect, and ddgs. dev contains repository maintenance dependencies: pytest, ruff, mypy, build, twine, and the web test stack. They stay separate so normal development does not install demo-only packages like Prefect.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
.venv/bin/python -m pytest
.venv/bin/python -m ruff check .
.venv/bin/python -m ruff format .
.venv/bin/python -m mypy lovia

The examples/ directory contains runnable scripts for the major features. Live provider tests are marked live_provider and stay skipped unless enabled explicitly.