Nooa Context And State

Context, Events, and State

Every agent has two managers, always present, hidden from the LLM by default:

• agent.context_manager (ContextManager) — named context blocks rendered into the system prompt each turn.
• agent.event_manager (EventManager) — the event history (tasks, messages, code executions, LLM calls).

Their agent-facing APIs are self.context (ContextApi) and self.events (EventsApi). To let the LLM see and manage them, opt in per subclass:

from nooa.agentdoc import spec

class MyAgent(Agent, llm=llm):
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(**kwargs)
        spec(self, "context", hidden=False)   # LLM can now use self.context
        spec(self, "events", hidden=False)    # LLM can now query self.events

Do NOT re-declare context/events as class annotations to unhide them — use spec().

Context blocks

Blocks appear as labelled SYSTEM sections, visible across all method calls on the instance (per-instance only — subagents don't inherit them). They are not the only information retained between turns of an active generation call: the current task description stays present, and event history carries messages, generated code, tool results, and printed output. Event history can later be filtered, summarized, or evicted as it grows; a context block is rendered again each turn and is not removed by history summarization. Context is eager prompt input, not general-purpose object storage. Use it only for bounded information that must remain continuously visible.

from nooa import Context

# Fixed content in the stable, provider-cache-friendly prefix
self.context["plan"] = Context(plan.format(), prefix=True)

# Live expression re-evaluated every LLM turn in the volatile suffix
self.context["progress"] = Context(expr="self.format_project_state()")

# Fixed literal in the volatile suffix (the bare-value shorthand)
self.context["latest_decision"] = "Use the canary deployment."

# Remove
del self.context["plan"]           # or self.context.pop("plan")

# Class-level default blocks
class MyAgent(
    Agent,
    llm=llm,
    context={"focus": Context(expr="self.topic")},
): ...

Content and placement are independent: value is fixed while expr is re-evaluated; prefix=True requests stable-prefix placement while the default uses the volatile suffix. Use docstrings for per-call task instructions and context blocks for bounded cross-call facts such as decisions, plans, and live status. Method arguments remain the right place for per-call input.

Prefix placement directly affects provider prompt/KV caching. Put only truly stable content in the prefix: changing a prefix block invalidates cache reuse for that block and everything after it. Keep live or frequently changing blocks in the volatile suffix so the stable prefix remains reusable.

Per-method overrides via ScopedContext:

from nooa.context_blocks import ScopedContext
from nooa import strategy, EventQuery

@strategy(context=ScopedContext(events=EventQuery.current_call()))
async def solve(self, problem: str) -> str:
    """Solves with a clean view: only this call's events, no prior history."""
    ...

Events

Event history is what fills the LLM's conversation window. Key model-visible event types (names have no "Event" suffix): Task, Message, Reasoning, Error, Feedback, LLMOutput, PythonOutput, Summary, Notification. Runtime-only events (never shown to the LLM) include BeforeAgentCall/AfterAgentCall, LLMCallStart/LLMCallEnd, LLMComplete (token/cost metrics).

# Query (AND semantics; chronological; limit keeps most recent)
recent = agent.events.query(limit=20)
errors = agent.events.query(type="Error")
hits   = agent.events.query(query="timeout")            # text search; regex=True for regex

# Filter what history a method's LLM sees
from nooa import EventQuery
EventQuery.current_call()      # only this call
EventQuery.by_type("Message")
EventQuery.last_n(50)
# usable as: class kwarg `event_query=`, agent __init__ kwarg, or ScopedContext(events=...)

# Subscribe
agent.event_manager.on("Message", lambda e: print(e.content))

# Archive a range into a one-line summary (LLM can do this too when events is exposed)
agent.events.collapse("3", "17", summary_text="Explored the repo layout")

History summarization

Unbounded histories eventually overflow the model context. Install a summarizer:

from nooa.agents import TokenBudgetSummarizer, MethodSummarizer, context_budget
from nooa.config import TokenBudgetConfig, MethodSummarizerConfig

# Compress oldest events when the token budget is crossed (open-ended conversations)
TokenBudgetSummarizer.install(agent, config=TokenBudgetConfig(max_tokens=80_000, preserve_recent=10))

# Or compress each completed method call's events (batch-style agents)
MethodSummarizer.install(agent, config=MethodSummarizerConfig(min_events=3))

# Size the budget from the model's context window
TokenBudgetSummarizer.install(agent, config=TokenBudgetConfig(max_tokens=context_budget(llm, percent=0.8)))

Summarizers are themselves agents; they inherit the host agent's LLM by default. agent.context_stats reports context-window usage.

Persistent state

from nooa.storage import SQLiteStorageManager

agent = MyAgent(storage=SQLiteStorageManager("agent_state.db"))   # snapshots + resume

Events, context blocks, LLM-defined methods, and user attributes are serialized; exclude a field with Annotated[T, nosnapshot] (from nooa.storage import nosnapshot). Note this is agent state persistence (src/nooa/storage/) — unrelated to trace storage (traces.db, owned by the viewer).

For long-term semantic memory (remember/recall across sessions) there is an opt-in memory subsystem:

from nooa_memory import MemoryConfig, MemoryManager, MemoryToolsMixin

class MyAgent(MemoryToolsMixin, Agent, llm=llm): ...
MemoryManager.install(agent, config=MemoryConfig(enabled=True))

See examples/advanced/memory.py and examples/quickstart/12_memory.py.

Pitfalls

• Context blocks and events are per-instance. Subagents start empty — pass data explicitly (constructor args, shared dataclasses).
• Expression blocks are evaluated every turn — keep them cheap and bounded (a huge self.render_everything() bloats every prompt).
• self.context["k"] = None suppresses a block from prompt rendering. Use del self.context["k"] / .pop("k") to remove a user block entirely.
• A bare self.context["k"] = value is fixed content in the volatile suffix. Use Context(value, prefix=True) for stable, cache-friendly content.
• set_static(), set_dynamic(), and DynamicContext are legacy APIs. They still work, but the unified Context(value=...|expr=..., prefix=...) API is the current interface.

Related skills

• nooa-agent-authoring — the core authoring model this builds on.
• nooa-capturing-traces — events vs spans: traces are the observability view of the same run.