zap-ai 0.2.0

Zach's Agent Platform is a library built on top of Temporal, FastMCP, and LiteLLM to build resilient agents.

Zap - Zach's Agent Platform

Zap is an opinionated library for building resilient AI agents on top of Temporal. It provides a scalable, fault-tolerant way to create AI agents that can power demanding use cases and complex architectures.

Why Zap?

LLM providers can't yet guarantee production-level SLAs. API calls fail, rate limits hit, and connections drop. Zap solves this by running your agents on Temporal—a fault-tolerant code execution platform that captures state and retries failed steps automatically.

Key Benefits:

• Automatic retries with configurable policies for LLM and tool calls
• State persistence - agents survive crashes and can resume mid-conversation
• Sub-agent delegation - compose complex systems from specialized agents
• MCP integration - easily add tools via the Model Context Protocol
• Provider agnostic - use any LLM supported by LiteLLM (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)

Built On

• Temporal - Fault-tolerant workflow orchestration
• LiteLLM - Unified LLM provider interface
• FastMCP - Model Context Protocol client for tool integration

Installation

pip install zap-ai

Or with uv:

uv add zap-ai

Prerequisites

1. Temporal Server - You need a running Temporal cluster:

   # Local development (requires Docker)
   temporal server start-dev
   
   # Or use Temporal Cloud: https://temporal.io/cloud
   

2. LLM API Keys - Set environment variables for your LLM provider:

   export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
   # Or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, AZURE_API_KEY, etc.
   

Quick Start

1. Define Your Agents

import asyncio
from zap_ai import ZapAgent, Zap, TaskStatus
from fastmcp import Client

# Create MCP clients for tool access
search_client = Client("https://example.com/search-mcp")
database_client = Client("./my_db_server.py")

# Define a main agent with access to tools and a sub-agent
main_agent = ZapAgent(
    name="MainAgent",
    prompt="You are a helpful research assistant. Use your tools to find information and delegate complex lookups to the LookupAgent.",
    model="gpt-4o",  # Any LiteLLM-supported model
    mcp_clients=[search_client],
    sub_agents=["LookupAgent"],  # Can delegate to this agent
)

# Define a specialized sub-agent
lookup_agent = ZapAgent(
    name="LookupAgent",
    prompt="You are a database specialist. Query the database to find detailed information.",
    discovery_prompt="Use this agent for database lookups and detailed data retrieval",
    model="gpt-4o-mini",  # Can use different models per agent
    mcp_clients=[database_client],
)

# Create the Zap instance (validates configuration at build time)
zap = Zap(agents=[main_agent, lookup_agent])

2. Start the Platform

async def main():
    # Initialize Temporal connection and MCP clients
    await zap.start()

    # Execute a task
    task = await zap.execute_task(
        agent_name="MainAgent",
        task="Research the latest developments in quantum computing and summarize the key findings.",
    )

    print(f"Task started: {task.id}")

    # Poll for completion
    while True:
        task = await zap.get_task(task.id)
        print(f"Status: {task.status}")

        if task.status == TaskStatus.COMPLETED:
            print(f"Result: {task.result}")
            break
        elif task.status == TaskStatus.FAILED:
            print(f"Error: {task.error}")
            break

        await asyncio.sleep(2)

asyncio.run(main())

3. Follow Up on Tasks

# Continue an existing conversation
await zap.execute_task(
    follow_up_on_task=task.id,
    task="Now compare these findings to classical computing approaches.",
)

4. Run the Worker (Separate Process)

# worker.py
from zap_ai.worker import run_worker
import asyncio

asyncio.run(run_worker())

python worker.py

Configuration

ZapAgent Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
name	str	required	Unique identifier (no spaces)
prompt	str	required	System prompt for the agent
model	str	"gpt-4o"	LiteLLM model identifier
mcp_clients	list[Client]	[]	FastMCP clients for tool access
sub_agents	list[str]	[]	Names of agents this agent can delegate to
discovery_prompt	str	None	Description shown to parent agents
max_iterations	int	50	Maximum agentic loop iterations

Zap Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
agents	list[ZapAgent]	required	All agents in the system
temporal_client	Client	None	Custom Temporal client (auto-connects if None)
task_queue	str	"zap-agents"	Temporal task queue name

Architecture

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Zap Orchestrator                         │
│  • Validates agent configuration at build time                   │
│  • Manages Temporal client connection                            │
│  • Routes tasks to appropriate agent workflows                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                  │
                                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Temporal Workflow (per task)                  │
│  ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────────────┐ │
│  │   Receive   │───▶│   LLM       │───▶│   Tool Execution    │ │
│  │   Message   │    │  Inference  │    │   (parallel)        │ │
│  └─────────────┘    └─────────────┘    └─────────────────────┘ │
│         ▲                                        │              │
│         │                                        │              │
│         └────────────────────────────────────────┘              │
│                     (agentic loop)                              │
│                                                                  │
│  Features:                                                       │
│  • Signals: Receive follow-up messages                          │
│  • Queries: Check status, get history                           │
│  • Continue-as-new: Handle long conversations                   │
│  • Child workflows: Delegate to sub-agents                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                  │
                                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Activities                               │
│  ┌────────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │  Inference         │    │  Tool Execution                  │ │
│  │  (LiteLLM)         │    │  (FastMCP clients)               │ │
│  │  • Retry on failure│    │  • Parallel execution            │ │
│  │  • Provider agnostic│   │  • Schema conversion             │ │
│  └────────────────────┘    └─────────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The Agentic Loop

1. Receive Message - Initial task or follow-up signal
2. LLM Inference - Call the model with conversation history and available tools
3. Tool Execution - Execute any requested tools in parallel
4. Repeat - Continue until the agent responds without tool calls
5. Wait - Idle until a follow-up signal arrives or timeout

Sub-Agent Delegation

When an agent has sub-agents configured, a special transfer_to_agent tool is automatically added. When called:

1. A child workflow is spawned for the sub-agent
2. The parent workflow waits for completion
3. The sub-agent's result is returned as a tool response
4. The parent continues with the new context

State Management

• Conversation history is stored in the workflow state
• Continue-as-new prevents event history from growing unbounded
• Queries allow external access to current status and history
• Signals enable follow-up messages to running workflows

Task Status

Status	Description
PENDING	Task created, not yet started
RUNNING	Agent is processing (inference or between tool calls)
AWAITING_TOOL	Waiting for tool execution to complete
DELEGATED	Running in a sub-agent (child workflow)
COMPLETED	Task finished successfully
FAILED	Task failed with an error

Limitations

• No streaming - Currently uses query-based polling for status. Real-time streaming may be added in future versions.
• Temporal required - You need a running Temporal cluster (local dev server or Temporal Cloud).
• MCP tools only - Tools must be exposed via MCP servers (FastMCP makes this easy).

Future Plans

• Real-time streaming via callbacks/webhooks
• Human-in-the-loop tools (approval workflows)
• Hooks system for custom logic injection
• Expose agents as MCP servers for agent-to-agent communication
• Execution statistics and debugging tools

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see IMPLEMENTATION.md for the development roadmap and open tasks.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.