Show HN: Agex – An agent framework that lives in your Python runtime

I built `agex`—a Python-native agentic framework where agents work directly with your existing libraries and runtime, avoiding the usual boilerplate of wrapping code in tool abstractions and dealing with JSON.

Its closest relative is Hugging Face's excellent `smol-agents`. While both "think-in-code", `agex` focuses on interoperability, allowing agents to receive and return complex Python objects like DataFrames, Plotly figures, or even callables.

For example:

  import math
  from typing import Callable
  from agex import Agent

  agent = Agent(primer="You are an expert at writing small, useful functions.")

  # Equip the agent with the math module
  agent.module(math)

  # The fn sig is the contract; the agent provides the implementation at runtime
  @agent.task
  def build_function(prompt: str) -> Callable:
      """Build a callable function from a text prompt."""
      pass

  # The agent returns a real, callable Python function, not a JSON blob
  is_prime = build_function("a function that checks if a number is prime")

  # You can use it immediately
  print(f"Is 13 prime? {is_prime(13)}")
  # > Is 13 prime? True

From the agent's point-of-view, it lives in a Python REPL with its own stdout, allowing it to inspect data, see errors, and self-correct. An agent's REPL is persisted across tasks, so it can build its own helpers and improve over time.

Highlights:

  * Code-as-Action: AST-style Python sandbox for agent actions.

  * Library Integration: Plug into libraries rather than tools (& skip the JSON).

  * Workspace Persistence: Git-like versioning for agent state (w/ time-travel debugging).

  * Multi-Agent: Orchestrate agents with natural Python control flow.

  * Observability: Real-time, notebook-friendly event streams.

  * Benchmarking: A framework for data-driven agent evaluation.

The project is early stage but the core concepts are stabilizing. I'm hoping to find a few brave souls to kick the tires. Feedback is welcome.

GitHub: https://github.com/ashenfad/agex

Docs & Examples: https://ashenfad.github.io/agex/