swytchcode-runtime (Python)

Thin runtime wrapper around the Swytchcode CLI. Calls swytchcode exec for you so you can stay in Python without shell boilerplate.

Requires: The swytchcode CLI must be installed. The binary is located automatically - no configuration needed in most environments. Resolution order:

1. SWYTCHCODE_BIN env var - explicit override.
2. $PATH lookup via shutil.which - the standard system resolution.
3. Common install paths - ~/.local/bin, /usr/local/bin (Unix) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\swytchcode\bin (Windows).

Install

pip install swytchcode-runtime

Or from the repo:

pip install /path/to/runtime-libraries/python-runtime

Use

JSON mode (default)

from swytchcode_runtime import exec

result = exec("api.account.create", {"email": "test@example.com"})
# result is parsed JSON (any)

Equivalent to: swytchcode exec api.account.create --json with args on stdin.

Request input (args): The second argument is the kernel args object (sent as JSON on stdin). Use this shape so the kernel builds the request correctly:

• body - Request body (dict).
• params - Query/path params (e.g. {"id": "cluster-123"}).
• Authorization - Auth header value (e.g. "Bearer token123").
• headers - Additional request headers (e.g. {"X-Request-Id": "abc-123"}).
• Other top-level keys are passed as query params.

Example with body, params, and headers:

exec("api.cluster.get", {
    "params": {"id": "cluster-123"},
    "Authorization": "Bearer token123",
    "headers": {"X-Request-Id": "abc-123"},
})

Raw mode

Get stdout as a string instead of parsing JSON:

from swytchcode_runtime import exec

output = exec("api.report.export", {"id": "123"}, raw=True)
# output is the raw stdout string

Options

• cwd - Working directory for the process (default: current directory).
• env - Extra environment variables (merged with os.environ).
• raw - If True, use --raw and return stdout as a string.
• dry_run - If True, pass --dry-run to the CLI; request details (method, url, headers, body) are output instead of calling the server.
• allow_raw - If True, pass --allow-raw to the CLI; required for executing raw methods (kernel has this disabled by default).

This runtime invokes swytchcode exec [canonical_id] with the flags above. For full exec behavior, see the Swytchcode kernel documentation.

Environment variables

This runtime itself needs no environment configuration to run - all auth lives in the CLI's own session (swytchcode login, stored under ~/.swytchcode/) or in .swytchcode/ in your project. The variables below are for the rarer cases where you need to override that:

Error handling

Failures raise SwytchcodeError (spawn error, non-zero exit, invalid JSON). Use the helper to narrow:

from swytchcode_runtime import exec, SwytchcodeError, is_swytchcode_error

try:
    exec("api.account.create", {"email": "test@example.com"})
except Exception as e:
    if is_swytchcode_error(e):
        print(e.message, e.cause)
    raise

On a non-zero exit the CLI writes a classified JSON error to stderr; exec() parses it into a clean .message and a structured .details dict (category, retryable, suggested_action, docs_url) instead of leaving you to parse the raw JSON yourself:

except SwytchcodeError as e:
    if e.details and e.details.get("category") == "auth":
        print(e.details.get("suggested_action"))

What this library is

• A thin process wrapper over the Swytchcode shell.
• A stable call surface: exec(canonical_id, input=None, *, cwd=..., env=..., raw=...).
• A convenience for developers and IDE agents.

What this library is not

• An HTTP SDK or API client.
• A replacement for the shell. All authority stays in the Swytchcode CLI.

This library must not and does not:

• Read .swytchcode/* or parse tooling.json.
• Validate schemas or add retries/timeouts.
• Call the registry or embed auth logic.

It is a pipe, not a brain.

For Cursor / IDE agents

Generate code that uses this runtime instead of subprocess boilerplate.

Preferred:

from swytchcode_runtime import exec

def create_account(input: dict) -> any:
    return exec("api.account.create", input)

Avoid: subprocess boilerplate, HTTP calls, or config parsing. Use exec(...) and let the CLI handle execution and policy.

Agentic workflows (framework integrations)

For full, production-ready examples across all major frameworks, check out the Swytchcode Examples Repository.

On top of exec, the runtime exposes a small agentic surface that turns Swytchcode tools into the native tool objects each agent framework expects.

Tool-use guidance - TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS

Without an explicit nudge, models can be conservative about side-effecting actions (starring a repo, sending a payment, creating an issue) - they'll describe what they would do instead of actually calling the tool. TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS is a short, framework-agnostic string that fixes this; concatenate it into whatever your provider calls its system prompt / instructions. It's scoped to only the tools this library provides, so it's safe to combine with instructions for other, unrelated tools in the same system prompt:

from swytchcode_runtime import TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS

system = f"You are a helpful assistant.\n\n{TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS}"

Quickstart: Anthropic SDK

Here is a clean example of building a simple agent using the Anthropic SDK. It stars the Swytchcode Examples repo on GitHub - a genuine OAuth-connected action (not just an API key passed on the request), so the setup below covers the real one-time flow: installing the CLI, logging in, and connecting a GitHub account.

One-time setup (run once per machine/project):

# 1. Install the CLI (macOS/Linux; see https://cli.swytchcode.com for other platforms)
curl -fsSL https://cli.swytchcode.com/install.sh | sh

# 2. Scaffold .swytchcode/ + tooling.json in your project
swytchcode init

# 3. Log in (opens a browser; creates your Swytchcode session)
swytchcode login

# 4. Fetch the GitHub integration
swytchcode get github

# 5. Enable the "star a repo" tool - the trust boundary for what this project can call
swytchcode add github.user.starred.update

# 6. Connect your GitHub account (opens a browser for the OAuth flow)
swytchcode auth connect github

Then add your Anthropic key to a .env file in your project root (used by python-dotenv below):

# .env
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Installation:

pip install swytchcode-runtime anthropic python-dotenv

(Note: You only need to install the SDK for the framework you are actually using. You do not need to install openai-agents or langchain if you are only using Anthropic. The swytchcode-runtime isolates these dependencies via lazy loading.)

Example:

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import anthropic
from swytchcode_runtime import Swytchcode, TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS
from swytchcode_runtime.providers.anthropic import AnthropicProvider

load_dotenv()  # Loads .env automatically

def run_agent():
    client = anthropic.Anthropic()

    # 1. Initialize Swytchcode with the Anthropic provider
    swx = Swytchcode(provider=AnthropicProvider())

    # 2. Fetch the tools you want your agent to use (e.g., GitHub tools)
    tools = swx.tools.get(toolkits=["github"])

    # 3. Build the system prompt: your own instructions plus TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS,
    # which tells Claude to call the tool directly for action requests instead of
    # just describing what it would do
    system = f"You are a helpful assistant.\n\n{TOOL_USE_INSTRUCTIONS}"

    response = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-sonnet-5",
        max_tokens=1024,
        system=system,
        tools=tools,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Star the swytchcodehq/swytchcode-examples repo on GitHub for me."}],
    )

    # 4. Run any tool calls Claude made and send the results back
    results = swx.handle_tool_calls(response)
    print(results)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_agent()

Selecting tools - swx.tools.get(...)

Pass exactly one selector; IDs resolve against your local Swytchcode state and remote search:

• toolkits=["stripe"] - every enabled tool whose integration matches a toolkit.
• tools=["charges.charge.create"] - explicit canonical IDs.
• search="refund a charge" - natural-language discovery (via swytchcode discover).

Each returned tool carries a full input schema - every field is surfaced to the model, with only the truly-required ones marked required - and an execute callback that runs swytchcode exec for you (empty optional values are stripped before the call so APIs like Stripe don't reject them).

Supported providers

Non-agentic APIs (Anthropic Messages)

When you run the tool loop yourself, handle_tool_calls executes each tool_use block and returns the tool_result blocks to send back:

import anthropic
client = anthropic.Anthropic()
msg = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-5", max_tokens=1024, tools=tools,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Refund charge ch_123 for $20"}],
)
results = swx.handle_tool_calls(msg)   # runs the tool calls, returns tool_result blocks

One runnable file per framework lives in sdk-examples/. Install the matching framework SDK (pip install openai-agents / anthropic / ai / langgraph / crewai) alongside the swytchcode CLI.