Jido (自動)

自動 (Jido) - A foundational framework for building autonomous, distributed agent systems in Elixir.

Note: Jido is a foundational framework that does not include AI or LLM capabilities out of the box. For AI integration, please see the separate jido_ai package which provides custom actions for AI/LLM functionality like structured interactions with Anthropic's Claude models.

Overview

Jido provides a robust foundation for building autonomous agents that can plan, execute, and adapt their behavior in distributed Elixir applications. Think of it as a toolkit for creating smart, composable workflows that can evolve and respond to their environment.

⚠️ Status: Jido is under active development. The API is stable for Actions, Workflows, Agents and Sensors. We are actively working on the Agent Server and Supervisor for the 1.1 release.

Key Features

• 🧩 Composable Actions: Build complex behaviors from simple, reusable actions
• 🤖 Autonomous Agents: Self-directing entities that plan and execute workflows
• 📡 Real-time Sensors: Event-driven data gathering and monitoring
• 🔄 Adaptive Learning: Agents can modify their capabilities at runtime
• 📊 Built-in Telemetry: Comprehensive observability and debugging
• ⚡ Distributed by Design: Built for multi-node Elixir clusters
• 🧪 Testing Tools: Rich helpers for unit and property-based testing

Installation

Add Jido to your dependencies:

def deps do
  [
    {:jido, "~> 1.0.0"}
  ]
end

Core Concepts

Actions

Actions are the fundamental building blocks in Jido. Each Action is a discrete, reusable unit of work with a clear interface:

defmodule MyApp.Actions.FormatUser do
  use Jido.Action,
    name: "format_user",
    description: "Formats user data by trimming whitespace and normalizing email",
    schema: [
      name: [type: :string, required: true],
      email: [type: :string, required: true]
    ]

  def run(params, _context) do
    {:ok, %{
      formatted_name: String.trim(params.name),
      email: String.downcase(params.email)
    }}
  end
end

Learn more about Actions →

Workflows

Workflows chain Actions together to accomplish complex tasks. Jido handles data flow and error handling between steps:

alias MyApp.Actions.{FormatUser, EnrichUserData, NotifyUser}

{:ok, result} = Jido.Workflow.Chain.chain(
  [FormatUser, EnrichUserData, NotifyUser],
  %{
    name: "John Doe ",
    email: "JOHN@EXAMPLE.COM"
  }
)

Learn more about Workflows →

Agents

Agents are stateful entities that can plan and execute Actions. They maintain their state through a schema and can adapt their behavior:

defmodule MyApp.CalculatorAgent do
  use Jido.Agent,
    name: "calculator",
    description: "An adaptive calculating agent",
    actions: [
      MyApp.Actions.Add,
      MyApp.Actions.Multiply,
      Jido.Actions.Directives.RegisterAction
    ],
    schema: [
      value: [type: :float, default: 0.0],
      operations: [type: {:list, :atom}, default: []]
    ]

  def on_after_run(agent, result) do
    # Track which operations we've used
    ops = [result.action | agent.state.operations] |> Enum.uniq()
    {:ok, %{agent | state: %{agent.state | operations: ops}}}
  end
end

Learn more about Agents →

Sensors

Sensors provide real-time monitoring and data gathering for your agents:

defmodule MyApp.Sensors.OperationCounter do
  use Jido.Sensor,
    name: "operation_counter",
    description: "Tracks operation usage metrics",
    schema: [
      emit_interval: [type: :pos_integer, default: 1000]
    ]

  def mount(opts) do
    {:ok, Map.merge(opts, %{counts: %{}})}
  end

  def handle_info({:operation, name}, state) do
    new_counts = Map.update(state.counts, name, 1, & &1 + 1)
    {:noreply, %{state | counts: new_counts}}
  end
end

Learn more about Sensors →

Running in Production

Start your agents under supervision:

# In your application.ex
children = [
  {Registry, keys: :unique, name: Jido.AgentRegistry},
  {Phoenix.PubSub, name: MyApp.PubSub},
  {Jido.Agent.Supervisor, pubsub: MyApp.PubSub},
  {Jido.Agent.Server, 
    agent: MyApp.CalculatorAgent.new(),
    name: "calculator_1"
  }
]

Supervisor.start_link(children, strategy: :one_for_one)

Example Use Cases

• Service Orchestration: Coordinate complex workflows across multiple services
• Data Processing: Build adaptive ETL pipelines that evolve with your data
• Business Automation: Model complex business processes with autonomous agents
• System Monitoring: Create smart monitoring agents that adapt to system behavior
• Transaction Management: Handle multi-step transactions with built-in compensation
• Event Processing: Process and react to event streams in real-time

Documentation

• 📘 Getting Started Guide
• 🧩 Actions & Workflows
• 🤖 Building Agents
• 📡 Sensors & Monitoring
• 🔄 Agent Directives

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here's how to get started:

1. Fork the repository
2. Run tests: mix test
3. Run quality checks: mix quality
4. Submit a PR

Please include tests for any new features or bug fixes.

See our Contributing Guide for detailed guidelines.

Testing

Jido is built with a test-driven mindset and provides comprehensive testing tools for building reliable agent systems. Our testing philosophy emphasizes:

• Thorough test coverage for core functionality
• Property-based testing for complex behaviors
• Regression tests for every bug fix
• Extensive testing helpers and utilities

Testing Utilities

Jido provides several testing helpers:

• Jido.TestSupport - Common testing utilities
• Property-based testing via StreamData
• Mocking support through Mimic
• PubSub testing helpers
• Signal assertion helpers

Running Tests

# Run the test suite
mix test

# Run with coverage reporting
mix test --cover

# Run the full quality check suite
mix quality

While we strive for 100% test coverage, we prioritize meaningful tests that verify behavior over simple line coverage. Every new feature and bug fix includes corresponding tests to prevent regressions.

License

Apache License 2.0 - See LICENSE.md for details.

Support

• 📚 Documentation
• 💬 GitHub Discussions
• 🐛 Issue Tracker