Tutorials
These tutorials take you through AEL, the Agent Engineering Language, one task at a time, from a first agent to services, devices and deployments. Each one builds on the reference pages it links, uses the commands and files of AEL 1.0.0, and ends with the limits to know about. Complete example agent systems and deployment recipes come with AEL 1.0.0.
Getting AEL 1.0.0 says how to request the build for your platform, and A first agent is the shortest way in.
The tutorials
Your first agent, end to end
Take one agent from the health check through a new project, its prompt, model binding and budget, to checks, tests, an evaluation, a build and a run.
Typed inputs, checks and policies
Keep control of an agent with typed parameters, input builders, raw or typed results, output checks, hooks, retry, repair and model policies, and connectors.
Services and retrieval
Place the services an agent calls, and answer from your own documents with ingested, updated and cited knowledge.
Building and running on AEL Server
Pair the command line with AEL Server, send it jobs, reconnect to them, and flash boards through it.
Boards and AEL Gateway
Build firmware, read its memory report, flash and recover a device, and deploy a prompt to AEL Gateway.
Robot safety and replay
Let a model propose and a validator decide, run against a simulator first, and replay a recorded run.
Evaluating and rolling back prompts
Release a prompt change through an evaluation suite, a comparison and a reviewed plan, and roll it back in one step.
Deploying in containers
Put an agent into a minimal image, give it its settings when it runs, follow its lifecycle and measure its start-up yourself.
Extending AEL
Write a component, a connection and a prompt, package them for reuse, and check them before others use them.
Calling your programs, with reports
Call your existing programs and shell commands as typed tools, and read the time and token reports of every channel.
From console agent to HTTP API
Run one agent with an argument, piped input and typed input, then serve it over HTTP and remove the server again.
Packages: add, update and offline builds
Add packages to a project and to one folder, install from the lock file, update and remove in atomic changes, and build without a network.
The example index
Every AEL sample of these tutorials, in the order it appears. The last column says what a sample needs to compile: samples of Core declarations (structures, enums and functions) compile on their own, as a library; the other samples are parts of a project, such as an agent, a node, a hook, a routes file, a project file or an excerpt, and compile with the AEL 1.0.0 compiler as part of the project they come from.
| Tutorial | Sample | What it shows | Compiles with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your first agent, end to end | 1 | The typed request and its check | Core declarations, on their own |
| Your first agent, end to end | 2 | The node, with its prompt, model binding and attempts | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Your first agent, end to end | 3 | The entry point that starts the agent | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Typed inputs, checks and policies | 1 | The typed review request and its input check | Core declarations, on their own |
| Typed inputs, checks and policies | 2 | The review node and its input builder | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Typed inputs, checks and policies | 3 | Hooks in ordered groups around an agent | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Services and retrieval | 1 | The advisor's retrieval workflow | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Boards and AEL Gateway | 1 | A sensor check with no heap | Core declarations, on their own |
| Robot safety and replay | 1 | The robot agent's proposal workflow | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Robot safety and replay | 2 | The deterministic validator | Core declarations, on their own |
| Extending AEL | 1 | An authorization hook | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Extending AEL | 2 | The metadata of a package project | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Extending AEL | 3 | Selecting a package's export | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Calling your programs, with reports | 1 | Your scoring script as a typed tool | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| From console agent to HTTP API | 1 | A routes file | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
| Packages: add, update and offline builds | 1 | Selecting an export in a file header | The AEL 1.0.0 compiler, in its project |
Honest limits
- Helpers whose body holds only a comment are placeholders, as A first agent explains: a sample that shows one compiles once the helper has its body.
- The tutorials name no target or board: they write
<target>and<board>, and Supported targets lists them. - No tutorial states a time, a size or a memory figure; where one matters, the tutorial says how you measure it.