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agents-sdk skill

/skills/agents-sdk

This skill helps you build persistent, stateful AI agents on Cloudflare Workers, enabling scheduling, RPC, and streaming chat with Code Mode benefits.

npx playbooks add skill cloudflare/skills --skill agents-sdk

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

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SKILL.md
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---
name: agents-sdk
description: Build AI agents on Cloudflare Workers using the Agents SDK. Load when creating stateful agents, durable workflows, real-time WebSocket apps, scheduled tasks, MCP servers, or chat applications. Covers Agent class, state management, callable RPC, Workflows integration, and React hooks.
---

# Cloudflare Agents SDK

**STOP.** Your knowledge of the Agents SDK may be outdated. Prefer retrieval over pre-training for any Agents SDK task.

## Documentation

Fetch current docs from `https://github.com/cloudflare/agents/tree/main/docs` before implementing.

| Topic | Doc | Use for |
|-------|-----|---------|
| Getting started | `docs/getting-started.md` | First agent, project setup |
| State | `docs/state.md` | `setState`, `validateStateChange`, persistence |
| Routing | `docs/routing.md` | URL patterns, `routeAgentRequest`, `basePath` |
| Callable methods | `docs/callable-methods.md` | `@callable`, RPC, streaming, timeouts |
| Scheduling | `docs/scheduling.md` | `schedule()`, `scheduleEvery()`, cron |
| Workflows | `docs/workflows.md` | `AgentWorkflow`, durable multi-step tasks |
| HTTP/WebSockets | `docs/http-websockets.md` | Lifecycle hooks, hibernation |
| Email | `docs/email.md` | Email routing, secure reply resolver |
| MCP client | `docs/mcp-client.md` | Connecting to MCP servers |
| MCP server | `docs/mcp-servers.md` | Building MCP servers with `McpAgent` |
| Client SDK | `docs/client-sdk.md` | `useAgent`, `useAgentChat`, React hooks |
| Human-in-the-loop | `docs/human-in-the-loop.md` | Approval flows, pausing workflows |
| Resumable streaming | `docs/resumable-streaming.md` | Stream recovery on disconnect |

Cloudflare docs: https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/

## Capabilities

The Agents SDK provides:

- **Persistent state** - SQLite-backed, auto-synced to clients
- **Callable RPC** - `@callable()` methods invoked over WebSocket
- **Scheduling** - One-time, recurring (`scheduleEvery`), and cron tasks
- **Workflows** - Durable multi-step background processing via `AgentWorkflow`
- **MCP integration** - Connect to MCP servers or build your own with `McpAgent`
- **Email handling** - Receive and reply to emails with secure routing
- **Streaming chat** - `AIChatAgent` with resumable streams
- **React hooks** - `useAgent`, `useAgentChat` for client apps

## FIRST: Verify Installation

```bash
npm ls agents  # Should show agents package
```

If not installed:
```bash
npm install agents
```

## Wrangler Configuration

```jsonc
{
  "durable_objects": {
    "bindings": [{ "name": "MyAgent", "class_name": "MyAgent" }]
  },
  "migrations": [{ "tag": "v1", "new_sqlite_classes": ["MyAgent"] }]
}
```

## Agent Class

```typescript
import { Agent, routeAgentRequest, callable } from "agents";

type State = { count: number };

export class Counter extends Agent<Env, State> {
  initialState = { count: 0 };

  // Validation hook - runs before state persists (sync, throwing rejects the update)
  validateStateChange(nextState: State, source: Connection | "server") {
    if (nextState.count < 0) throw new Error("Count cannot be negative");
  }

  // Notification hook - runs after state persists (async, non-blocking)
  onStateUpdate(state: State, source: Connection | "server") {
    console.log("State updated:", state);
  }

  @callable()
  increment() {
    this.setState({ count: this.state.count + 1 });
    return this.state.count;
  }
}

export default {
  fetch: (req, env) => routeAgentRequest(req, env) ?? new Response("Not found", { status: 404 })
};
```

## Routing

Requests route to `/agents/{agent-name}/{instance-name}`:

| Class | URL |
|-------|-----|
| `Counter` | `/agents/counter/user-123` |
| `ChatRoom` | `/agents/chat-room/lobby` |

Client: `useAgent({ agent: "Counter", name: "user-123" })`

## Core APIs

| Task | API |
|------|-----|
| Read state | `this.state.count` |
| Write state | `this.setState({ count: 1 })` |
| SQL query | `` this.sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${id}` `` |
| Schedule (delay) | `await this.schedule(60, "task", payload)` |
| Schedule (cron) | `await this.schedule("0 * * * *", "task", payload)` |
| Schedule (interval) | `await this.scheduleEvery(30, "poll")` |
| RPC method | `@callable() myMethod() { ... }` |
| Streaming RPC | `@callable({ streaming: true }) stream(res) { ... }` |
| Start workflow | `await this.runWorkflow("ProcessingWorkflow", params)` |

## React Client

```tsx
import { useAgent } from "agents/react";

function App() {
  const [state, setLocalState] = useState({ count: 0 });

  const agent = useAgent({
    agent: "Counter",
    name: "my-instance",
    onStateUpdate: (newState) => setLocalState(newState),
    onIdentity: (name, agentType) => console.log(`Connected to ${name}`)
  });

  return (
    <button onClick={() => agent.setState({ count: state.count + 1 })}>
      Count: {state.count}
    </button>
  );
}
```

## References

- **[references/workflows.md](references/workflows.md)** - Durable Workflows integration
- **[references/callable.md](references/callable.md)** - RPC methods, streaming, timeouts
- **[references/state-scheduling.md](references/state-scheduling.md)** - State persistence, scheduling
- **[references/streaming-chat.md](references/streaming-chat.md)** - AIChatAgent, resumable streams
- **[references/mcp.md](references/mcp.md)** - MCP server integration
- **[references/email.md](references/email.md)** - Email routing and handling
- **[references/codemode.md](references/codemode.md)** - Code Mode (experimental)

Overview

This skill helps you build stateful AI agents on Cloudflare Workers using the Cloudflare Agents SDK. It covers Agent and AIChatAgent classes, state persistence, scheduling, RPC, MCP servers, email handling, streaming chat, and Code Mode for lower token usage. Use it to create durable, schedulable agents with streaming chat or RPC endpoints.

How this skill works

The SDK provides base classes (Agent, AIChatAgent, McpAgent) that run as Durable Objects and persist state to SQLite. Agents expose @callable RPC methods, can schedule or queue tasks, and broadcast state changes. AIChatAgent adds automatic message persistence and resumable streaming; Code Mode emits executable code instead of tool calls to save tokens.

When to use it

  • Build a persistent counter, workflow, or bot with durable state and RPC
  • Create streaming chat UIs with message persistence and resumable streams
  • Run scheduled jobs or cron-based tasks from within an agent
  • Implement an MCP server or email routing inside Cloudflare Workers
  • Optimize token usage across multi-step tool orchestration using Code Mode

Best practices

  • Install and configure Durable Object bindings and migrations in wrangler.jsonc before deploying
  • Type your agent state (Agent<Env, State>) to make state updates safer and clearer
  • Prefer streaming responses for chat (streamText + toUIMessageStreamResponse) to improve UX and reduce latency
  • Expose client methods with @callable for clean RPC over WebSocket
  • Use schedule() for time-based tasks and queue() for sequential processing; cancel schedules with cancelSchedule(id)
  • Switch to Code Mode when chaining multiple tool calls or when token budget is tight

Example use cases

  • A chat agent that persists conversation history and streams model responses to a web UI
  • A scheduled billing or maintenance task run from a durable agent using cron schedules
  • An MCP orchestration agent that coordinates multiple servers with reduced token overhead via Code Mode
  • An RPC-enabled agent that exposes control methods to a client dashboard via @callable
  • An email routing agent that receives, processes, and queues messages inside Durable Objects

FAQ

Do agents automatically persist state?

Yes. Use this.setState() and this.state; state is persisted to SQLite and can be broadcast to clients.

When should I use AIChatAgent vs Agent?

Use AIChatAgent for chat scenarios with message persistence and resumable streaming. Use Agent for non-chat stateful RPC, scheduling, MCP, or email workflows.