Actions Overview

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Actions are Agently's request-time capability layer: the model can choose a registered function, MCP tool, sandbox executor, or other backend while answering one request.

This is not the orchestration layer. If you need branches, fan-out, approval, wait/resume, or durable execution, put TriggerFlow above the request and call the agent from a chunk.

Boundaries

Topic	Owns	Does not own
Action Runtime	Planning, action-call normalization, dispatch, action logs	Long-running workflow lifecycle
Agent Component helpers	Business-facing shortcuts such as enable_python, enable_shell, and exposing the current Workspace file area through enable_workspace_file_actions	Provider lifecycle internals
Tools compatibility	tool_func, use_tool, use_tools, extra.tool_logs aliases	New extension design
MCP	Loading remote or local MCP tools into the action surface	A separate workflow engine
Sandbox actions	Running code through an ActionExecutor backend	General container orchestration
TriggerFlow	Stages, branches, fan-out, pause/resume, persistence	Tool schema registration

Current source-backed structure

Default plugin wiring lives in agently/_default_init.py:

• ActionRuntime: AgentlyActionRuntime
• ActionFlow: TriggerFlowActionFlow
• ActionExecutor: local function, MCP, Search/Browse, Python/Bash sandbox, Node.js, SQLite, Docker
• ExecutionEnvironmentProvider: MCP, Python, Bash, Node.js, Docker, Browser, SQLite

The public facade is agently/core/operation/Action/. Agent-level mounting lives in agently/builtins/agent_extensions/ActionExtension.py. The runnable examples are grouped under examples/action_runtime/README.md, with model-backed cookbook patterns under examples/cookbook/.

Reading choices

You need	Read
New function actions	Action Runtime
Give an app agent Python, shell, or workspace access	Action Runtime
Build a backend that needs managed resources	Execution Environment
Existing code still uses tool_func	Tools Compatibility
Use a local or HTTP MCP server	MCP
Route many actions across steps	TriggerFlow Patterns
Expose the action-using agent over HTTP	FastAPI Service Exposure

Source notes

The ToolManager plugin type still exists for legacy use, but new examples use the Action Runtime path. The examples in examples/action_runtime/ create a request-scoped turn, inspect agent.get_action_result(prompt=turn.prompt), then call turn.get_result() and read extra.action_logs.