In the previous parts of this series on the Microsoft AutoGen framework, we looked at how to get started with the AutoGen framework. We examined the process of building a simple agent using the pre-built AssistantAgent available within AutoGen and explored the development of a multi-agent team.
However, what is an agent in the context of AutoGen? How do agents communicate with each other? I needed answers to these questions before proceeding to the next level of using AutoGen to create larger, multi-agent applications. So, I started exploring the Core package upon which the autogen-chat is built. This article is a result of that exploration.
To understand the underlying fundamentals, I used the quick start example as a starting point and modified it. While the quick-start example demonstrates two agents coordinating to count down from 10 to 1, the modified example in this article uses two agents to coordinate the generation of ten random prime numbers.
An agent in the context of AutoGen is defined as:
An agent is a software entity that communicates via messages, maintains its state, and performs actions in response to received messages or changes in its state. These actions may modify the agent’s state and produce external effects, such as updating message logs, sending new messages, executing code, or making API calls.
Each agent is a self-contained unit of execution that can be developed, tested, and deployed independently.
Let’s dive into the code.
The Basics
Before anything else, ensure that you have installed the autogen-core package.
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$ pip install "autogen-core"
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AutoGen core is the event-driven actor framework for creating agentic workflows. This package provides message-passing, event-driven agents, as well as local and distributed agent runtimes. In the actor model, an actor is an entity that, in response to a message it receives, can concurrently send a finite number of messages to other actors, create a finite number of new actors, and designate the behavior to be used for the next message it receives. These actions could be carried out in parallel.
Let us first define the agent and its logic for handling messages.
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from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Callable
import asyncio
from sympy import isprime
import random
from autogen_core import DefaultTopicId, MessageContext, RoutedAgent, default_subscription, message_handler
from autogen_core import AgentId, SingleThreadedAgentRuntime
@dataclass
class Message:
content: int
@default_subscription
class Generator(RoutedAgent):
def __init__(self, generate_val: Callable[[], int]) -> None:
super().__init__("A generator agent.")
self._generate_val = generate_val
@message_handler
async def handle_message(self, message: Message, ctx: MessageContext) -> None:
val = self._generate_val()
print(f"{'-'*80}\nGenerator:\nWe got {message.content} prime numbers. \nNext number is {val}")
await self.publish_message(Message(content=val), DefaultTopicId())
@default_subscription
class Checker(RoutedAgent):
def __init__(self, run_until: Callable[[int], bool]) -> None:
super().__init__("A checker agent.")
self.count = 0
self._run_until = run_until
self.prime_numbers = []
@message_handler
async def handle_message(self, message: Message, ctx: MessageContext) -> None:
if message.content not in self.prime_numbers:
if isprime(message.content):
self.count = self.count+1
self.prime_numbers.append(message.content)
if not self._run_until(self.count):
print(f"{'-'*80}\nChecker:\n{message.content} is a prime number, continue to next.")
await self.publish_message(Message(content=self.count), DefaultTopicId())
else:
print(f"{'-'*80}\nChecker:\nWe got {self.count} prime numbers, stopping.")
print(f"{'-'*80}\nPrime numbers generated: {self.prime_numbers}")
else:
print(f"{'-'*80}\nChecker:\n{message.content} is not a prime number, generate next.")
await self.publish_message(Message(content=self.count), DefaultTopicId())
else:
print(f"{'-'*80}\nChecker:\n{message.content} exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.")
await self.publish_message(Message(content=self.count), DefaultTopicId())
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The Message data class defines the messages passed between agents. The Generator agent generates a random number, while the Checker agent verifies whether the random number received as a message is a prime number. Each agent defines a method for handling messages. This is indicated using the @message_handler decorator. The method you designate as the message handler must be an asynchronous method and must have three arguments: self, message, and context.
The agent runtime is a key component of the AutoGen framework. This provides the communication infrastructure required for agent-to-agent communication. The runtime handles the creation of agents and agents’ lifecycle. In this example, we use a SingleThreadedAgentRuntime, which is most suitable for development and standalone applications. This runtime processes all messages using a single asyncio queue. We can create a runtime using the SingleThreadedAgentRuntime() method. Once a runtime is created, we need to register the agents.
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await Generator.register(
runtime,
"generator",
lambda: Generator(generate_val=lambda: random.randint(1, 15)),
)
await Checker.register(
runtime,
"checker",
lambda: Checker(run_until=lambda count: count >= 5),
)
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Within each agent’s registration, we supply a lambda function that is used as an action when a message is received. The Generator agent uses random.randint(1, 15) as the lambda while the Checker agent checks for the condition count >= 5.
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async def main():
runtime = SingleThreadedAgentRuntime()
await Generator.register(
runtime,
"generator",
lambda: Generator(generate_val=lambda: random.randint(1, 15)),
)
await Checker.register(
runtime,
"checker",
lambda: Checker(run_until=lambda count: count >= 5),
)
runtime.start()
await runtime.send_message(Message(1), AgentId("checker", "default"))
await runtime.stop_when_idle()
asyncio.run(main())
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To start the runtime, we need to call runtime.start(). The send_message method can be used to initiate the conversation between the agents. In this example, we send Message(1) as the initial message. runtime.stop_when_idle() specifies that the runtime should stop when it is idle.
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$ python 05-autogencore-basics.py
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
1 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 0 prime numbers.
Next number is 8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
8 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 0 prime numbers.
Next number is 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
4 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 0 prime numbers.
Next number is 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
11 is a prime number, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 1 prime numbers.
Next number is 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
7 is a prime number, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
4 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
15 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
8 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
10 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
10 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
7 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
4 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
6 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
6 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 2 prime numbers.
Next number is 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
2 is a prime number, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
7 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
11 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
7 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
10 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
7 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
9 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 3 prime numbers.
Next number is 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
3 is a prime number, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
3 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
2 exists in the generated prime numbers, continue to next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
1 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
6 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 14
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
14 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
4 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
8 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
6 is not a prime number, generate next.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generator:
We got 4 prime numbers.
Next number is 13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker:
We got 5 prime numbers, stopping.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prime numbers generated: [11, 7, 2, 3, 13]
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This is a quick tour of how you can build agents with AutoGen core. We will explore more about different agent patterns in the upcoming articles of this series.
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