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Interacting with Agents

Agentic provides several ways to interact with your agents, ranging from simple CLI interfaces to full-featured web applications. This section covers the different methods available.

Available Interfaces

Interface Use Case Features
Command Line (CLI) Quick testing, scripting Simple text I/O, dot commands
REST API Integration with other applications HTTP endpoints, event streaming
Next.js Dashboard Professional web UI Real-time updates, run history, background tasks
Streamlit Dashboard Quick prototyping Simple web UI with minimal setup

Command Line Interface

The CLI is the simplest way to interact with your agents. It provides a REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) interface for direct conversations.

agentic thread examples/basic_agent.py

Special "dot commands" give you access to debugging features and agent controls:

.debug tools      # Show tool calls
.model claude-3   # Switch models
.history          # Show conversation history
.help             # See all available commands

Learn more about the CLI →

REST API

The REST API allows you to integrate agents with web applications, automation systems, or other services. It exposes endpoints for starting conversations, getting events, managing runs, and more.

agentic serve examples/basic_agent.py

This starts a FastAPI server that provides: - Agent discovery - Process requests - Event streaming - Run history and logs

Learn more about the REST API →

Next.js Dashboard

The Next.js Dashboard provides a full-featured web interface for interacting with your agents, with support for:

  • Multiple agent management
  • Real-time event streaming
  • Background task management
  • Run history and logs
  • Markdown rendering
agentic dashboard start --agent-path examples/basic_agent.py

Learn more about the Next.js Dashboard →

Streamlit Dashboard

The Streamlit Dashboard offers a lightweight web interface for quick prototyping and visualization.

agentic streamlit

Learn more about the Streamlit Dashboard →

Programmatic Access

In addition to these interfaces, you can always interact with agents programmatically in your Python code:

from agentic.common import Agent

# Create an agent
agent = Agent(
    name="My Agent",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
    model="openai/gpt-4o-mini"
)

# Use the << operator for a quick response
response = agent << "Hello, how are you?"
print(response)

# For more control over the conversation
request_id = agent.start_request("Tell me a joke").request_id
for event in agent.get_events(request_id):
    print(event)

Next Steps