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AgentCore

A ReAct agent backend: JWT-authenticated sessions with a per-session tool allowlist, a background LLM↔tool loop that persists every step, two-tier memory (Redis + pgvector), and a live SSE trace with replay.

FastAPI · SQLAlchemy 2 (async) · PostgreSQL 16 + pgvector · Redis 7 · Celery 5 · OpenAI SDK v1

Quickstart

cp .env.example .env          # then put a real OPENAI_API_KEY in it
docker compose up             # db, redis, api, worker — migrations run automatically
curl localhost:8000/health    # {"status":"ok"}
open http://localhost:8000/scalar

API reference

URL
/	Scalar reference — grouped by tag, with a built-in request client
/openapi.json	the schema all three render

POST /auth/register returns a bearer token; paste it into Authorize and every request is scoped to that user. Scalar persists it across page reloads.

Scalar's bundle loads from a CDN in the browser, so /scalar needs client-side internet; /docs works without it.

API_PORT=8001 docker compose up if port 8000 is already taken on your machine.

Data and hot reload

docker compose up loads docker-compose.override.yml automatically, which mounts ./app into the api and worker read-only and runs both under a file watcher. Edit a file on the host and the change is live in about two seconds — no rebuild.

docker compose up                        # dev: live reload
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up  # exactly what ships in the image
docker compose build                     # still needed after a dependency change

Postgres and Redis write to ./.data/ on the host (gitignored), so state survives a restart and docker compose down -v:

docker compose down	keeps data
docker compose down -v	keeps data — it lives in ./.data, not a volume
rm -rf .data	the only way to start clean

Redis runs with --appendonly yes, so short-term memory windows and run event streams survive a restart too.

Local development

Dependencies are managed with uv; pyproject.toml declares them and uv.lock pins the exact resolution used by both your machine and the image.

uv sync                       # creates .venv from the lockfile (Python 3.12, fetched if absent)
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload
uv add <package>              # updates pyproject.toml and uv.lock together
uv export --format requirements-txt > requirements.txt   # if you need a pip-style file

uv run <cmd> syncs before it runs, so the environment can never drift from the lockfile.

Tests

Run entirely offline — the single LLM seam (app.agent.planner.chat) is mocked, so no network and no API key are needed.

OPENAI_API_KEY=test-key uv run pytest

The runtime image ships without test dependencies, so the suite runs from the Dockerfile's dev stage instead:

docker compose --profile test build tests    # the profile is skipped by a plain build
docker compose --profile test run --rm tests

Try it

API=http://localhost:8000

TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST $API/auth/register -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"me@example.com","password":"hunter2hunter2"}' | jq -r .access_token)

SESSION=$(curl -s -X POST $API/sessions -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name":"Research Assistant","tools_enabled":["web_search","calculator","remember_fact"]}' | jq -r .id)

RUN=$(curl -s -X POST $API/sessions/$SESSION/run -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"message":"What is 15% of the current population of Dubai, and remember that fact for me?"}' | jq -r .run_id)

curl -N $API/runs/$RUN/stream -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"   # live trace, replays from the start
curl -s $API/runs/$RUN/steps  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" | jq
curl -s "$API/memory/search?q=Dubai" -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" | jq

Connecting to the stream after submitting is fine — see NOTES.md §4.

The stream carries the whole run as it happens:

event: tool_call_delta   [web_search#0] '{"query": "current populati'
event: tool_call_delta   [web_search#0] 'on of Dubai"}'
event: llm_call          iter=0 tools=['web_search'] reasoning_tokens=64
event: tool_call         web_search({"query": "current population of Dubai"})
event: tool_result       ... estimated at 3,787,000.
...
event: content_delta     "15% of Dubai's population (~"
event: content_delta     '3,787,000) is about 568,050.'
event: final_answer      ...
event: done              completed

*_delta frames are the model's output as it is generated; the un-suffixed frames are the persisted trace. Clients can bind per-type handlers (es.addEventListener('content_delta', …)) rather than parsing every payload.

How the agent reasons

Every tool's schema carries a required thought, and every value-carrying tool a required grounding — both injected by the @tool decorator and stripped before the function runs. The ReAct "thought" is therefore a field of the action rather than prose to be parsed, and each step of the trace explains itself:

  tool_call    calculator
               thought   : Taking 15% of a number I have not actually read yet.
               grounding : assumed
  tool_result  Error: you marked these arguments as assumed, which means you invented values...

  tool_call    calculator
               thought   : The search returned 3,787,000; using the real figure.
               grounding : tool_result
  tool_result  568050.0

A call the model labels assumed is refused before the tool runs, so an invented value cannot silently propagate. When the agent finishes with a question rather than an answer, the run ends as needs_input with a needs_input step carrying it — not completed, because the question is unanswered, and not failed, because nothing broke.

Thinking mode

CHAT_MODEL defaults to a reasoning model with REASONING_EFFORT=medium. Effort is sent only when the model supports it, so CHAT_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini silently drops the parameter rather than failing. Reasoning tokens are billed separately from visible output, so they are tracked per run and per call:

curl -s $API/runs/$RUN/status -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" | jq
# { "tokens_used": 480, "reasoning_tokens": 256, "step_count": 11, ... }

Set STREAM_TOKENS=false to fall back to non-streaming calls; the SSE step frames are unaffected.

Endpoints

Method	Path
POST	/auth/register	201 + token
POST	/auth/token	OAuth2 password form
GET/POST	/sessions	list / create (422 on an unknown tool)
GET/DELETE	/sessions/{id}	detail with run summaries / delete
POST	/sessions/{id}/run	202, returns run_id immediately
GET	/runs/{id}/status	status, tokens, step count
GET	/runs/{id}/steps	the full ordered trace
GET	/runs/{id}/stream	SSE, replay + live tail
DELETE	/runs/{id}	cancel (409 if already terminal)
GET	/memory, /memory/search?q=	list / semantic search
DELETE	/memory/{id}

Two ReAct examples, for comparison

Both are standalone scripts against gpt-4o-mini — they import nothing from app/ and need only the openai package. Same cycle, different transport.

	react_scratchpad.py	react_tool_calling.py
Action	Action: search in prose	a native tool_call
Parsing	a regex over the reply	none — a typed object arrives
Arguments	one untyped string	a JSON object, schema-checked
Thought	a Thought: line	a required thought parameter on every tool
Stop sequence	required	not needed
Two tools at once	impossible	parallel tool calls
Malformed output	breaks the run	cannot be represented

react_scratchpad.py — the 2022 text format

The original: a Thought / Action / Action Input / Observation scratchpad parsed with a regex, with four dummy tools.

uv run python examples/react_scratchpad.py
uv run python examples/react_scratchpad.py --show-prompt -q "How tall is Everest in feet?"

When the request is ambiguous the agent asks you, and your answer becomes the next Observation:

$ uv run python examples/react_scratchpad.py -q "What is the weather there?"

      Thought: The question does not say which city. I should not guess — I will ask.
       Action: ask_user
 Action Input: Which city do you want the weather for?

               Which city do you want the weather for?
   your reply> Dubai
  Observation: Dubai

      Thought: The user said a city. I will look up its weather.
       Action: get_weather
 Action Input: Dubai
  Observation: Dubai: 34C, clear skies, humidity 55%.

 Final Answer: In Dubai it is currently 34C with clear skies and 55% humidity.

ask_user is offered only when stdin is a terminal — pass --no-interactive (or pipe input) and it is withheld, so the model is never handed a tool that cannot work. Declining (Ctrl-D) returns an observation saying so rather than crashing the run.

     Question: What is 15% of the current population of Dubai, and what is the weather there?

      Thought: I need the population of Dubai before I can take 15% of it.
       Action: web_lookup
 Action Input: population of Dubai
  Observation: Error: unknown tool 'web_lookup'. Available tools: search, calculator, ...

      Thought: That tool does not exist. The list says to use `search` instead.
       Action: search
 Action Input: Dubai population
  Observation: Dubai's population is estimated at 3,787,000 as of 2025.

      Thought: The population is 3,787,000. Now I take 15% of it.
       Action: calculator
 Action Input: 0.15 * 3787000
  Observation: 568050.0

 Final Answer: 15% of Dubai's population (3,787,000) is 568,050. It is currently 34C and clear there.

react_tool_calling.py — native tool calling

Same trace to read, but nothing is parsed. The interesting question it answers: if the model no longer writes "Thought:", where does the thought go?

Relying on message.content alongside tool_calls does not work — gpt-4o-mini usually returns content=null when it emits tool calls. So every tool's schema gets a required thought parameter, injected by the decorator and stripped before the tool runs. The model cannot make a well-formed call without it, so the guarantee comes from the schema rather than from asking nicely in the prompt — and with parallel calls, each action carries its own.

uv run python examples/react_tool_calling.py
uv run python examples/react_tool_calling.py --show-schemas --strict
uv run python examples/react_tool_calling.py --no-parallel

      Thought: I do not know Dubai's population, so I must look it up before any arithmetic.
       Action: search
 Action Input: {"query": "Dubai population"}
  Observation: Dubai's population is estimated at 3,787,000 as of 2025.

      Thought: The user asked about the current figure, so I want today's date alongside it.
       Action: get_current_time
 Action Input: {}
  Observation: 2026-08-19 18:47 UTC

    Reasoning: Let me compute the percentage now.
      Thought: I have 3,787,000 and need 15% of it.
       Action: compute
 Action Input: {"expression": "0.15 * 3787000"}
  Observation: Error: unknown tool 'compute'. Available tools: calculator, get_current_time, ...

Those first two actions came back in one message — parallel calls, each with its own thought. Reasoning: is the optional content channel when the model happens to narrate; Thought: is the guaranteed one.

--strict sends Structured Outputs schemas (strict: true, additionalProperties: false, every property required, optionals as nullable unions) so the argument shape is guaranteed rather than hoped for. It is opt-in because it changes what the API accepts.

Both scripts are the contrast to app/agent/runner.py, which runs the same cycle in production — see NOTES.md §6.

Adding a tool

Write the function. That is the whole procedure — the decorator derives the OpenAI schema from the signature and the description from the docstring.

# app/agent/tools.py
@tool
def get_weather(city: str) -> str:
    """Return the current weather for a city."""
    return f"{city}: 34°C, clear skies, humidity 55%."

Then add "get_weather" to a session's tools_enabled. It appears in the POST /sessions enum in /docs automatically — the request type is derived from the registry, so there is no schema to keep in sync.

Layout

app/
├── main.py              app factory, lifespan (Redis pool), error envelope
├── core/                config · security (JWT) · dependencies (DI aliases)
├── db/                  async engine + Alembic migrations
├── models/              User · AgentSession · AgentRun · RunStep · LongTermMemory
├── schemas/             Pydantic v2 request/response models
├── routers/             auth · sessions · runs · memory · stream
├── agent/               runner (the loop) · tools · planner · prompts · memory_manager · events
├── tasks/               Celery app + execute_agent_run
└── tests/               offline suite, mocked LLM

examples/
├── react_scratchpad.py    standalone ReAct, 2022 text format (regex-parsed)
└── react_tool_calling.py  standalone ReAct, native tool calls (thought in the schema)

pyproject.toml + uv.lock at the root; alembic.ini points at app/db/migrations.

Image

One multi-stage Dockerfile, three targets:

Target	Contains	Used by
builder	uv, binutils, the lockfile	discarded — nothing ships from it
runtime	base image + venv + app, non-root, healthcheck	api, worker
dev	runtime + uv + the test group	tests profile

243 MB on disk / 78 MB compressed, down from 331 MB / 110 MB single-stage: the uv binary, the compiler toolchain, the apt cache and the wheels' debug symbols all stay in the builder.

Design decisions, deviations and known limitations are in NOTES.md.