ExAgent

An agent framework for Elixir — structured output, tool-calling, streaming, stateful agents, multi-agent sessions and durable persistence, powered by the BEAM. Built the Elixir way: recursion, behaviours, Ecto changesets, cheap concurrency for tools, supervision/durability, :telemetry, and events that plug straight into LiveView.

ExAgent is layered and opt-in. Use just the one-shot core, or stack on the stateful runtime, persistence and coordination as you need them.

Layer 3  ExAgent.Session          coordinated multi-agent turns + shared state
Layer 2  ExAgent.Store            snapshots: resume after crash / restart
Layer 1  ExAgent.Server           a supervised, stateful, event-emitting agent
Layer 0  ExAgent.run/3            the one-shot model ⇄ tools loop (pure-ish)
         ────────────────────────  events (ExAgent.Event) over ExAgent.PubSub

See DESIGN.md for the architecture and rationale, and ROADMAP.md for the phased plan. This README is a tour.

Why

Python agent libraries are delightful when types + validation + an agentic loop work together. ExAgent brings that ergonomics (type-derived tool schemas, structured output with retry, model-agnostic agents) to Elixir, while leaning on BEAM strengths Python/TS can't match: each agent is a supervised process, multi-agent coordination is real message passing (not "agent-as-tool" workarounds), and sessions survive crashes.

Install

def deps do
  [{:exagent, "~> 0.2"}]
end

The library starts a supervised ExAgent.Finch HTTP pool, a Registry (ExAgent.PubSub.Local), a Task.Supervisor, an ExAgent.Store.ETS table and an ExAgent.AgentSupervisor, so it works out of the box. Tune the Finch pool with config :exagent, :finch_pools, %{:default => [size: 32]}.

ExAgent does not shadow OTP's Agent unless you alias it as Agent.

Layer 0 — the one-shot loop

agent = ExAgent.new(model: "test", instructions: "Be concise.")
{:ok, %{output: text}} = ExAgent.run(agent, "Hello!")

Tools with derived schemas

defmodule MyApp.Tools do
  use ExAgent.Tools

  @doc "Get the weather for a city."
  deftool get_weather(ctx, city :: String.t(), days :: integer()) do
    {:ok, "#{city}: sunny"}
  end
end

agent = ExAgent.new(model: "openai:gpt-4o", tools: MyApp.Tools.tools())

Structured output

Any embedded_schema becomes the output spec; JSON Schema is derived and validated with a changeset, with retry-on-failure.

defmodule WeatherReport do
  use Ecto.Schema
  embedded_schema do
    field :city, :string
    field :temp_c, :float
    field :condition, Ecto.Enum, values: [:sunny, :rainy, :cloudy]
  end

  def changeset(s, a) do
    s |> Ecto.Changeset.cast(a, [:city, :temp_c, :condition])
      |> Ecto.Changeset.validate_required([:city, :temp_c])
  end
end

agent = ExAgent.new(model: "anthropic:claude-3-5-haiku", output: WeatherReport)
{:ok, %{output: %WeatherReport{}}} = ExAgent.run(agent, "It's 22 and sunny in Madrid")

Streaming

ExAgent.run_stream(agent, "count to five")
|> Stream.each(fn {:delta, t} -> IO.write(t); {:result, %{usage: u}} -> IO.puts("\n#{u.output_tokens} tokens") end)
|> Stream.run()

Persistence / durable runs

The core is DB-free: it doesn't own a database or job queue. It provides best-effort message-history serialization so you can persist a conversation anywhere and resume it:

json = ExAgent.Message.to_json(result.messages)   # store this
{:ok, history} = ExAgent.Message.from_json(json)  # load it back
ExAgent.run(agent, "follow up", message_history: history)

For crash-safe, resumable runs, wrap run/3 in an Oban job — see examples/durable_oban.exs. Or, better, use Layer 1's built-in store.

Layer 1 — a stateful, supervised agent

ExAgent.Server keeps an agent alive across runs: it preserves history, accumulates usage, threads stateful models, and emits events.

{:ok, dm} =
  ExAgent.AgentSupervisor.start_agent(
    agent: ExAgent.new(model: "openai:gpt-4o", instructions: "You are a DM."),
    agent_id: "dm",
    pubsub: :local
  )

{:ok, %{output: _}} = ExAgent.Server.chat(dm, "I enter the tavern.")   # synchronous
{:ok, %{output: _}} = ExAgent.Server.chat(dm, "I pick the lock.")      # sees prior turn

# Async: returns immediately, result arrives as a :run_finished event
{:ok, request_id} = ExAgent.Server.send_message(dm, "describe the room")
ExAgent.Server.abort(dm)      # cancel the in-flight run (stays responsive)
ExAgent.Server.health(dm)     # %{status: :idle, pending: 0}

While a run is in flight, chat/3 returns {:error, :busy} and send_message/3 enqueues up to max_pending then returns :queue_full.

Layer 2 — snapshots & resume

Point a Server at a store and it checkpoints after every run and rehydrates on restart — surviving crashes:

ExAgent.AgentSupervisor.start_agent(
  agent: agent_template,
  agent_id: "dm",
  store: :ets          # ExAgent.Store behaviour; ETS ships by default
)

The persisted ExAgent.Server.Snapshot carries only serializable state (history + usage + metadata): never pids, secrets or tool closures. The live model/tools come from the app-supplied template on restart. See examples/stateful_agent.exs.

Layer 3 — multi-agent sessions

ExAgent.Session coordinates participants (agents or humans) taking turns over a piece of shared state, through a pluggable TurnPolicy. The Session is the single writer of shared_state.

alias ExAgent.Session
alias ExAgent.Session.Participant

{:ok, game} =
  Session.start_link(
    shared_state: %{log: []},
    policy: {:initiative, order: ["rogue", "fighter", "wizard"]},
    participants: [
      Participant.new(id: "rogue", kind: :agent),
      Participant.new(id: "fighter", kind: :human)
    ],
    pubsub: :local
  )

:ok = Session.start(game)
{:ok, world, next} =
  Session.take_turn(game, "rogue", fn s -> {:ok, %{s | log: ["rogue acts" | s.log]}} end)
# `next` is now "fighter"; it sees the rogue's change via Session.read_state/1

Tools inside an agent run read/propose state through an ExAgent.Session.SharedState handle in RunContext.deps — never a mutable reference. Policies: RoundRobin, Initiative (custom :order), SupervisorPolicy (a coordinator alternates with workers).

Coordination

ExAgent.Coordination adds the classic orchestration patterns on top of a Session (pydanticAI levels 2 & 3):

alias ExAgent.Coordination

# Delegation (agent-as-tool): the parent calls a sub-agent; both runs' tokens
# are counted together.
helper = ExAgent.new(model: "openai:gpt-4o-mini", instructions: "You summarize.")
parent =
  ExAgent.new(
    model: "openai:gpt-4o",
    tools: [Coordination.delegation_tool(helper, name: "summarize")]
  )

# Hand-off: transfer control between participants directly.
{:ok, "wizard"} = Coordination.handoff(session, "wizard")

Robustness & safety

Long sessions and cost stay under control, all opt-in:

alias ExAgent.{Compaction, CostGuard, Permissions, UsageLimits}

# Summarize old turns once the context grows (capability hook).
compaction = %Compaction.Capability{
  compactor: Compaction.Summary,
  opts: [threshold_tokens: 6000, keep_recent: 8, summarize: &MyApp.summarize/1]
}

# Per-tool admission control (allow/ask/deny with globs).
perms = Permissions.new!(rules: [{"*", :deny}, {"read", :allow}, {"bash", :ask}])

agent =
  ExAgent.new(
    model: "anthropic:claude-3-5-haiku",       # cache: true → prompt caching
    capabilities: [compaction],
    usage_limits: %UsageLimits{request_limit: 20, tool_calls_limit: 15, max_budget_cents: 25}
  )

ExAgent.run(agent, "go",
  permissions: perms,
  approve: &MyApp.ask_human/1,                 # called on :ask
  estimate_cost: CostGuard.estimator(%{input_per_1k_cents: 250, output_per_1k_cents: 1000})
)

Events & PubSub

Every layer emits versioned ExAgent.Event envelopes (distinct from :telemetry). Subscribe to drive a UI:

:ok = ExAgent.PubSub.subscribe({ExAgent.PubSub.Local, []}, ExAgent.Event.agent_topic("dm"))

receive do
  {:exagent_event, %ExAgent.Event{type: :run_finished, payload: p}} ->
    IO.puts("done: #{inspect(p)}")
end

ExAgent.PubSub is a behaviour: None (default, no-op), Local (Registry), Phoenix (delegates to Phoenix.PubSub dynamically — no hard dependency), or your own.

Models

Resolve from a string or pass a struct:

ExAgent.new(model: "openai:gpt-4o")
ExAgent.new(model: "openrouter:deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash")
ExAgent.new(model: "anthropic:claude-3-5-haiku-20241022")
# Z.AI's Anthropic-compatible endpoint (GLM), needs ZAI_API_KEY:
ExAgent.new(model: "zai:glm-4.5-air")

Bring your own provider by implementing the ExAgent.Model behaviour.

Examples

examples/demo.exs — offline loop with the TestModel.
examples/openrouter.exs — live tool-calling via OpenRouter.
examples/structured_output.exs — live structured output via Ecto.
examples/streaming.exs — live SSE streaming.
examples/stateful_agent.exs — supervised stateful agent + events.
examples/multi_agent_session.exs — two agents, round-robin, shared state.

Status

0.3 — layered runtime (Layers 0–3), multi-agent coordination, compaction / cost guard / prompt caching, and per-tool permissions. Fully tested (194 tests). Upcoming (see ROADMAP.md): a durable Postgres store, MCP client, and a Phoenix LiveView reference app.

License

MIT

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