volnix 0.1.7

Programmable worlds for artificial intelligence

Volnix

Programmable worlds for AI agents.

Volnix creates living, governed realities for AI agents. Not mock servers. Not test harnesses. Complete worlds with stateful services, policies that push back, budgets that run out, NPCs that follow up and escalate, and consequences that cascade. Worlds are defined in YAML, run on their own timelines, and score every agent that interacts with them.

Watch the 1-minute demo

Quick Start

Requirements: Python 3.12+, uv (recommended), and at least one LLM API key (GOOGLE_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY). See docs/llm-providers.md for supported providers.

Option 1: pip install

pip install volnix
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=...    # or OPENAI_API_KEY / ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
volnix check                 # verify setup
volnix serve dynamic_support_center --internal agents_dynamic_support --port 8080

Option 2: From source (includes dashboard)

git clone https://github.com/janaraj/volnix.git && cd volnix
uv sync --all-extras
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=...
uv run volnix serve dynamic_support_center --internal agents_dynamic_support --port 8080

# Dashboard (separate terminal)
cd volnix-dashboard && npm install && npm run dev    # http://localhost:3000

With venv activated (source .venv/bin/activate), you can run volnix directly instead of uv run volnix.

Note: The React dashboard is only available when installed from source. The pip package includes the full backend and CLI.

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How It Works

Volnix supports two modes — connect your own agents to a governed world, or deploy internal agent teams that collaborate autonomously.

  Mode 1: Connect Your Own Agent           Mode 2: Deploy Internal Agent Teams
  ────────────────────────                ──────────────────────────

  Your Agent (any framework)              Mission + Team YAML
       │                                       │
       ▼                                       ▼
  Gateway (MCP/REST/SDK)                  Lead Agent ──▶ Slack ◀── Agent N
       │                                       │            ▲
       ▼                                       ▼            │
  ┌──────────────────────┐               ┌──────────────────────┐
  │   Volnix World       │               │   Volnix World       │
  │   7-Step Pipeline    │               │   7-Step Pipeline    │
  │   Simulated Services │               │   Simulated Services │
  │   Policies + Budget  │               │   Policies + Budget  │
  │   Static world       │               │   Living world (NPCs)│
  └──────────┬───────────┘               └──────────┬───────────┘
             │                                      │
             ▼                                      ▼
  Scorecard + Event Log                   Deliverable + Scorecard

Every action flows through a 7-step governance pipeline — permission, policy, budget, capability, responder, validation, commit — before it touches the world. Nothing bypasses it.

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Internal Agents

Deploy agent teams that coordinate through the world itself — posting in Slack, updating tickets, processing payments. A lead agent manages a 4-phase lifecycle (delegate → monitor → buffer → synthesize) to produce a deliverable.

mission: >
  Investigate each open ticket. Process refunds where appropriate.
  Senior-agent handles refunds under $100. Supervisor approves over $100.
deliverable: synthesis

agents:
  - role: supervisor
    lead: true
    permissions: { read: [zendesk, stripe, slack], write: [zendesk, stripe, slack] }
    budget: { api_calls: 50, spend_usd: 500 }
  - role: senior-agent
    permissions: { read: [zendesk, stripe, slack], write: [zendesk, stripe, slack] }
    budget: { api_calls: 40, spend_usd: 100 }

See docs/internal-agents.md for the complete guide.

External Agents

Connect any agent framework — CrewAI, PydanticAI, LangGraph, AutoGen, or plain HTTP. Your agent interacts with simulated services as if they were real. It doesn't know it's in a simulation.

Protocol	Endpoint	Best For
MCP	/mcp	Claude Desktop, Cursor, PydanticAI
OpenAI compat	/openai/v1/	OpenAI SDK, LangGraph, AutoGen
Anthropic compat	/anthropic/v1/	Anthropic SDK
Gemini compat	/gemini/v1/	Google Gemini SDK
REST	/api/v1/	Any HTTP client

# PydanticAI via MCP — zero Volnix imports
from pydantic_ai import Agent
from pydantic_ai.mcp import MCPServerStreamableHTTP

server = MCPServerStreamableHTTP("http://localhost:8080/mcp/")
agent = Agent("openai:gpt-4.1-mini", toolsets=[server])

async with agent:
    result = await agent.run("Check the support queue and handle urgent tickets.")

See docs/agent-integration.md for the full guide.

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Key Features

• 7-step governance pipeline on every action (permission → policy → budget → capability → responder → validation → commit)
• Policy engine with block, hold, escalate, and log enforcement modes
• Budget tracking per agent (API calls, LLM spend, time)
• Reality dimensions — tune information quality, reliability, social friction, complexity, and boundaries
• 11 verified service packs — Stripe, Zendesk, Slack, Gmail, GitHub, Calendar, Twitter, Reddit, Notion, Alpaca, Browser
• BYOSP — bring any service; the compiler auto-resolves from API docs
• Multi-provider LLM — Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, vLLM, CLI tools
• Real-time dashboard with event feed, scorecards, and agent timeline
• Causal graph — every event traces back to its causes
• 13 built-in blueprints across support, finance, DevOps, research, security, and marketing

Use Cases

Some of the things you can do with Volnix:

Use Case	What It Means
Agent evaluation	Put your agent in a governed world, measure how it handles policies, budgets, and ambiguity
Multi-agent coordination	Deploy agent teams that collaborate through shared world state — not a pipeline
Scenario simulation	Explore "what if" scenarios with realistic services, actors, and consequences
Gateway deployment	Route agent actions through governance (permission, policy, budget) before they hit real APIs
Synthetic data generation	Generate interconnected, realistic service data (tickets, charges, customers) with causal consistency
PMF / product exploration	Simulate business environments to test workflows, team structures, or product decisions

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Built-in Blueprints

Blueprint	Domain	Services	Agent Team
dynamic_support_center	Support	Stripe, Zendesk, Slack	agents_dynamic_support (3)
market_prediction_analysis	Finance	Slack, Twitter, Reddit	agents_market_analysts (3)
incident_response	DevOps	Slack, GitHub, Calendar	—
climate_research_station	Research	Slack, Gmail	agents_climate_researchers (4)
feature_prioritization	Product	Slack	agents_feature_team (3)
security_posture_assessment	Security	Slack, Zendesk	agents_security_team (3)

volnix blueprints                        # list all
volnix serve market_prediction_analysis \
  --internal agents_market_analysts --port 8080

See docs/blueprints-reference.md for the full catalog.

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Dashboard

cd volnix-dashboard && npm install && npm run dev    # http://localhost:3000

Live event streaming, governance scorecards, policy trigger logs, deliverable inspection, agent activity timeline, entity browser.

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Documentation

Guide	Description
Getting Started	Installation, first run, connecting agents
Creating Worlds	World YAML schema, reality dimensions, seeds
Internal Agents	Agent teams, lead lifecycle, deliverables
Agent Integration	MCP, REST, SDK, framework adapters
Blueprints Reference	Complete catalog of blueprints and pairings
Service Packs	Verified packs, YAML profiles, BYOSP
LLM Providers	Provider types, tested models, routing
Configuration	TOML config, LLM routing, tuning
Architecture	Two-half model, 10 engines, pipeline
Vision	World memory, generative worlds, visual reality

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Development

uv sync --all-extras          # install
uv run pytest                 # test (2800+ tests)
uv run ruff check volnix/     # lint
uv run ruff format --check volnix/  # format

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and PR process.

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Acknowledgments

• Context Hub by Andrew Ng — curated, versioned documentation for coding agents. Volnix uses Context Hub for dynamic API schema extraction during service profile resolution.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.