Invoking an Effect Golem Agent with golem agent invoke
Both golem and golem-cli can be used — all commands below work with either binary. Effect
agents use the ordinary Golem CLI; the guest-side typed Agent.client API is for calls from
another agent, not shell invocation.
Usage
golem agent invoke <AGENT_ID> <FUNCTION_NAME> [ARGUMENTS...]
This invokes a method on a deployed agent and waits for the result. The agent is automatically created on first invocation if it does not exist yet. Standard output, error, and log streams from the agent are streamed live to the terminal by default.
For an Effect agent definition:
- The agent type name is exactly the
namepassed todefineAgent. - Constructor arguments follow the declaration order in
id. - The function name is exactly the key declared in
methods, including its TypeScript casing. - Method arguments follow the declaration order in that method's
input.
Do not translate names to kebab-case or snake_case. For example, a defineAgent named Counter
with a methods key named incrementBy is invoked as:
golem agent invoke 'Counter("c1")' incrementBy 5
Output
Effect components report TypeScript as their source language, so text output renders return values
using TypeScript syntax. Multiple return values are rendered as a TypeScript tuple, for example
[1, "ok"]. Methods returning void or no value print void in text mode.
For machine-readable output, use --format json or --format yaml. A single return value includes
result plus result_json; multiple return values include result plus results_json; methods
returning void or no value omit result fields.
Agent ID Format
The agent ID identifies the agent type and its agent id fields:
AgentTypeName(param1, param2, ...)
The agent ID can optionally be prefixed with environment or application paths:
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
AgentTypeName(params) |
Standalone agent name |
env/AgentTypeName(params) |
Environment-specific |
app/env/AgentTypeName(params) |
Application and environment-specific |
account/app/env/AgentTypeName(params) |
Account, application, and environment-specific |
For agents with no agent id fields, use empty parentheses: AgentTypeName().
Examples
Invoke a method with no parameters
golem agent invoke 'MyAgent()' getStatus
Invoke a method with parameters
golem agent invoke 'MyAgent("user-123")' processOrder '"order-456"' 42
Invoke an Effect agent with agent id fields
golem agent invoke 'ChatRoom("general")' sendMessage '"Hello, world!"'
Invoke in a specific environment
golem agent invoke 'staging/MyAgent("user-123")' getStatus
Available Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-t, --trigger |
Only trigger the invocation without waiting for the result (fire-and-forget) |
-i, --idempotency-key <KEY> |
Set a specific idempotency key; use "-" for auto-generated |
--no-stream |
Disable live streaming of agent stdout/stderr/log |
--schedule-at <DATETIME> |
Schedule the invocation at a specific time (requires --trigger; ISO 8601 format) |
Idempotency
Every invocation uses an idempotency key. If not provided, one is generated automatically. The same idempotency key guarantees that the invocation is executed at most once, even if the CLI call is retried.
golem agent invoke -i my-unique-key 'MyAgent()' doWork
Auto-Deploy
If the agent's component has not been deployed yet and the CLI is run from an application
directory, golem agent invoke will automatically build and deploy the component before invoking.
Value Syntax
Effect agent IDs, method arguments, and text results use TypeScript syntax:
- Field names use
camelCase - Options: raw value or
undefined - Records:
{ fieldOne: 1, fieldTwo: "hello" } - Enums:
"variant-name" - Variants:
{ tag: "variant-name", value: 42 } - Tuples:
[1, "hello"] - Results:
{ ok: value }/{ error: value }
Quote structured values as one shell argument, and quote string literals twice: once as a shell argument and once as a TypeScript string literal.
golem agent invoke 'MyAgent("user-123")' updateProfile '{ displayName: "Alice", age: 30 }'