Agentex

Agentex Platform

Agentex is a platform for building and deploying intelligent agents. The repo has two main parts:

• agentex/ — FastAPI backend + Temporal workflows (runs in Docker)
• agentex-ui/ — Next.js frontend (runs locally)

Agents are built with the agentex-sdk CLI and run as separate processes that register with the backend.

When to Activate

• Choosing between sync, async, or Temporal agent type for a new agent
• Wiring acp.py, manifest.yaml, or run_worker.py for a new agent
• Using adk.messages, adk.state, or adk.providers in an activity or workflow
• Debugging ACP protocol issues or agent registration failures
• Understanding the backend DDD layer boundaries or exception mapping
• Windows-specific setup issues (uv sync, port conflicts, .env loading)

Agent Types

Sync ACP

One message in, one response out. Stateless.

acp = FastACP.create(acp_type="sync")

@acp.on_message_send
async def handle(params: SendMessageParams) -> TaskMessageContent:
    return TextContent(author="agent", content="reply")

Use when: FAQ bots, translation, data lookups, single-turn interactions.

Async ACP (base)

Task lifecycle with persistent state across multiple turns.

acp = FastACP.create(acp_type="async", config=AsyncACPConfig(type="base"))

@acp.on_task_create   # called once — initialize state
@acp.on_task_event_send  # called per message — respond via adk.messages.create
@acp.on_task_cancel   # called on cancel — cleanup

Key difference from sync: responses are pushed via adk.messages.create, not returned. State is persisted via adk.state.create / get_by_task_and_agent / update.

Use when: multi-turn conversations, stateful workflows, streaming LLM responses. Warning: race conditions if parallel events arrive — use Temporal for production.

Async ACP + Temporal

Same as Async but every step is a durable Temporal workflow. Survives crashes and restarts.

# manifest.yaml
agent:
  acp_type: async
  temporal:
    enabled: true

Use when: production agents, long-running tasks, human-in-the-loop, complex multi-step tool chains.

ACP State Pattern (Async)

class MyState(BaseModel):
    turn: int
    messages: List[Message]

# Create on task init
await adk.state.create(task_id=..., agent_id=..., state=MyState(...))

# Read on each event
task_state = await adk.state.get_by_task_and_agent(task_id=..., agent_id=...)
state = MyState.model_validate(task_state.state)

# Write back after mutating
await adk.state.update(state_id=task_state.id, task_id=..., agent_id=..., state=state)

Sending Messages (Async)

# Echo user message back (so it shows in UI)
await adk.messages.create(task_id=params.task.id, content=params.event.content)

# Send agent reply
await adk.messages.create(
    task_id=params.task.id,
    content=TextContent(author="agent", content="response text"),
)

# Streaming LLM (auto-sends chunks to UI)
await adk.providers.litellm.chat_completion_stream_auto_send(
    task_id=params.task.id,
    llm_config=LLMConfig(model="gpt-4o-mini", messages=state.messages, stream=True),
)

manifest.yaml Structure

local_development:
  agent:
    port: 8000          # must be unique per agent (8000, 8001, 8002...)
    host_address: host.docker.internal
  paths:
    acp: project/acp.py

agent:
  name: my-agent        # unique name, shown in UI
  acp_type: sync        # or async
  temporal:
    enabled: false
  credentials: []
  env: {}

Backend Architecture

src/
├── api/routes/         # FastAPI endpoints
├── domain/entities/    # Pure Pydantic models
├── domain/use_cases/   # Business logic
├── adapters/crud_store/ # DB adapters (Postgres + MongoDB)
├── adapters/streams/   # Redis SSE streams
└── config/dependencies.py  # Singleton GlobalDependencies

Layer rules:

• Domain layer has zero framework imports
• API layer → use cases → domain ← adapters
• ORM ↔ domain conversion via explicit converter functions — never skip layers

Exceptions:

• ClientError → 400, ServiceError → 500, ItemDoesNotExist → 404

Windows-Specific Gotchas

Ports

Key Environment Variables (agentex/.env)

ENVIRONMENT=development
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@127.0.0.1:5434/agentex
TEMPORAL_ADDRESS=localhost:7233
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017
MONGODB_DATABASE_NAME=agentex
AGENTEX_SERVER_TASK_QUEUE=agentex-server
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000
ENABLE_HEALTH_CHECK_WORKFLOW=true

Running Tests

cd agentex
# Unit tests (no Docker needed)
.\build.ps1 test-unit

# Integration tests (needs Docker infra running)
.\build.ps1 test-integration

# Specific file
.\build.ps1 test -File tests/unit/test_foo.py

Red Flags

• Sync ACP for multi-turn conversations — sync agents receive one message and return one reply; they have no state, no turn history, and no mechanism to stream responses; use async ACP (or async + Temporal) for any stateful interaction
• Handler decorators in acp.py for a Temporal agent — Temporal agents route all ACP events through the workflow engine; registering @acp.on_task_create decorators in acp.py bypasses Temporal and runs handlers outside the durable execution context
• Returning a response from an async handler instead of using adk.messages.create — async agent handlers are not expected to return a value; the return value is silently discarded and the user sees no reply; push responses explicitly via adk.messages.create
• Not following load → mutate → save with adk.state — reading state, mutating it in-memory, and then returning without saving means the next signal handler loads stale state; always call adk.state.update after every mutation before returning
• Omitting get_all_activities() in run_worker.py — ADK built-in activities (messages, state persistence, tracing) are registered via get_all_activities(); omitting it means all adk.messages.create and adk.state.* calls fail at runtime with "activity not found"
• Two agents sharing the same port in manifest.yaml — each ACP server process binds a port; running two agents with the same local_development.agent.port causes one to fail to start; increment the port for each agent (8000, 8001, 8002, …)
• load_dotenv(override=True) when running inside Docker — overriding with the local .env file replaces Docker-injected environment variables such as DATABASE_URL and TEMPORAL_ADDRESS with localhost values, breaking service discovery inside the container network

Checklist

• acp_type chosen correctly in manifest.yaml (sync / async / async + temporal)
• Temporal agent acp.py has only FastACP.create(acp_type="async", config=TemporalACPConfig(...)) — no handler decorators
• adk.messages.create used to send responses (not returned from handlers)
• State follows load → mutate → save pattern via adk.state
• on_task_create ends with await workflow.wait_condition(lambda: self._done) for Temporal agents
• get_all_activities() included in worker alongside custom activities
• Agent port in manifest.yaml is unique across all running agents (8000, 8001, …)
• Windows: load_dotenv(override=False) to avoid clobbering Docker env vars
• Domain exceptions (ClientError, ServiceError, ItemDoesNotExist) used — not HTTPException in use cases