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Build a support desk (Python)

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You'll build the first line of a support desk. An agent reads a ticket, classifies it, sets its priority and drafts a reply. A flow then escalates the urgent tickets and records a reply on the rest.

Along the way, you'll write two tools over your own code, one that reads and one that writes. You'll also write an agent with a typed answer, and a flow that branches on that answer. It takes about 20 minutes.

  • Python 3.11 or later, and uv.
  • Docker, with access to the runtime image, as Install sets up.
  • An API key from an AI model provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter), for step 6.

A pack is the folder Kindgi runs your code from. Create one from the python template, remove the template's example, add a package for your own code, and install the dependencies:

Terminal window
uvx --from "kindgi-cli>=0.1,<0.2" kindgi init acme-desk --template=python
cd acme-desk
rm tools/echo.py tools/greet.py agents/echo_agent.py flows/echo_flow.py guardrails/response_not_empty.py tests/test_tools.py
mkdir support && touch support/__init__.py
uv sync
  • uvx --from "kindgi-cli>=0.1,<0.2" runs the Kindgi 0.1 CLI without installing it.
  • acme-desk is the pack's name, and the folder it's created in.
  • --template=python starts a Python pack, with a small example.

init lists the files it made, and uv sync installs the dependencies. The other commands print nothing. You now have the pack's folders, tools/, agents/, guardrails/ and flows/, and the [tool.kindgi] tables in pyproject.toml, without the example. support/ is where your code goes.

The tools will work on tickets. In your app, tickets would come from a database. Here they come from a small module of the pack's own, so the tutorial runs anywhere. Write it:

support/tickets.py
"""Your app's code: here, an in-memory ticket store."""
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
@dataclass
class Ticket:
id: str
customer: str
subject: str
body: str
notes: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)
_TICKETS = {
"T-100": Ticket("T-100", "Ada", "Charged twice", "My card was charged twice for the March invoice."),
"T-101": Ticket("T-101", "Grace", "Locked out", "Production is down for my team: nobody can log in since this morning."),
}
def get_ticket(ticket_id: str) -> Ticket | None:
return _TICKETS.get(ticket_id)
def add_note(ticket_id: str, note: str) -> int:
ticket = _TICKETS[ticket_id]
ticket.notes.append(note)
return len(ticket.notes)

The pack now has two tickets, T-100 and T-101, and functions to read one and add a note to it.

Tools are how an agent or a flow reaches your code. Write two, in one file. get_ticket changes nothing, and says so with mutating=False. add_note writes, so it doesn't say that, and effects names what it writes:

tools/tickets.py
from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
from kindgi import tool
from support.tickets import add_note as store_note
from support.tickets import get_ticket as find_ticket
class TicketRef(BaseModel):
ticket_id: str = Field(alias="ticketId")
class TicketView(BaseModel):
found: bool
customer: str | None = None
subject: str | None = None
body: str | None = None
class Note(BaseModel):
ticket_id: str = Field(alias="ticketId")
note: str = Field(min_length=1)
class NoteCount(BaseModel):
notes: int
@tool(id="acme-desk.get-ticket", mutating=False)
def get_ticket(input: TicketRef) -> TicketView:
"""Reads a support ticket by its id (T-123)."""
ticket = find_ticket(input.ticket_id)
if ticket is None:
return TicketView(found=False)
return TicketView(found=True, customer=ticket.customer, subject=ticket.subject, body=ticket.body)
@tool(id="acme-desk.add-note", effects=[{"kind": "writes", "resource": "tickets"}])
def add_note(input: Note) -> NoteCount:
"""Adds an internal note to a ticket."""
return NoteCount(notes=store_note(input.ticket_id, input.note))

The pack's root is on sys.path, so a tool imports your code by its package name, support.tickets.

The pack now has two tools: get_ticket reads a ticket, and add_note writes to one.

The agent reads a ticket with get_ticket, and answers in a shape your flow can act on. Write it:

agents/triage.py
from typing import Literal
from pydantic import BaseModel
from kindgi import Agent
from ..tools.tickets import get_ticket
class Triage(BaseModel):
category: Literal["billing", "access", "other"]
priority: Literal["low", "normal", "urgent"]
reply: str
triage = Agent(
id="acme-desk.triage",
version="0.1.0",
name="Triage",
description="Classifies a support ticket and drafts a first reply.",
instructions=(
"You triage support tickets. Read the ticket with the get-ticket tool, then answer "
"with its category (billing, access or other), its priority (low, normal or urgent) "
"and a short, friendly first reply to the customer. "
"A ticket is urgent when the customer cannot work at all."
),
capabilities=[{"needs": [{"feature": "tool-use"}]}],
tools=[get_ticket],
output=Triage,
budget={"maxSteps": 4, "maxCostUsd": 0.05, "maxWallMs": 60_000},
)

output is the answer's shape. The model has to answer with JSON that fits it. An answer that doesn't fit is sent back once, with what's wrong. If it still doesn't fit, the turn fails.

The pack now has an agent whose answer always has a category, a priority and a reply.

The flow runs the agent, then escalates the ticket or records the reply, depending on the agent's answer. Write it:

flows/handle_ticket.py
from kindgi import Flow
from ..agents.triage import triage
from ..tools.tickets import add_note
IS_URGENT = {
"op": "eq",
"left": {"path": "nodeOutputs.triage.output.priority"},
"right": {"literal": "urgent"},
}
handle_ticket = Flow(
id="acme-desk.handle-ticket",
version="0.1.0",
name="Handle a ticket",
description="Triages a ticket, then escalates it or records the drafted reply.",
nodes=[
{
"id": "triage",
"kind": "agent",
"ref": triage,
"inputMapping": {"ticketId": {"path": "runInput.ticketId"}},
},
{
"id": "escalate",
"kind": "tool",
"ref": add_note,
"inputMapping": {
"ticketId": {"path": "runInput.ticketId"},
"note": {"literal": "Escalated to the on-call engineer."},
},
},
{
"id": "record-reply",
"kind": "tool",
"ref": add_note,
"inputMapping": {
"ticketId": {"path": "runInput.ticketId"},
"note": {"path": "nodeOutputs.triage.output.reply"},
},
},
],
edges=[
{"id": "start", "from": "$start", "to": "triage"},
{"id": "urgent", "from": "triage", "to": "escalate", "when": IS_URGENT},
{"id": "not-urgent", "from": "triage", "to": "record-reply", "when": {"op": "not", "child": IS_URGENT}},
{"id": "escalated", "from": "escalate", "to": "$end"},
{"id": "recorded", "from": "record-reply", "to": "$end"},
],
output={
"mapping": {
"category": {"path": "nodeOutputs.triage.output.category"},
"priority": {"path": "nodeOutputs.triage.output.priority"},
"reply": {"path": "nodeOutputs.triage.output.reply"},
},
},
)
  • The triage step runs the agent on the run's ticketId.
  • Two edges leave it, each with a when: escalate runs when the agent said urgent, record-reply when it didn't. Both call add_note, with different inputs.
  • output is what the run returns: three fields of the agent's answer.

Check what Kindgi finds in the pack. The indexer lists every tool, agent and flow it loads:

Terminal window
uv run python -m kindgi.pack index --pack-dir .
"counts": {
"tools": 2,
"guardrails": 0,
"agents": 1,
"flows": 1
},
…
"fileErrors": []
Excerpt
Terminal window
uv run kindgi dev
✓ loaded: 2 tools, 0 guardrails, 1 agents, 1 flows

It has loaded the pack's two tools, its agent and its flow. Leave it running, and continue in a second terminal, in acme-desk.

The agent needs a real model for its typed answer. The stand-in that kindgi dev starts with can't produce one. Store your AI model provider's API key as a secret, then register the provider:

Terminal window
uv run kindgi secrets set <KEY_NAME> --env=local --scope=tenant
uv run kindgi providers register --preset=<preset>

<KEY_NAME> and <preset> depend on the provider:

Provider <KEY_NAME> <preset>
Anthropic ANTHROPIC_API_KEY anthropic
OpenAI OPENAI_API_KEY openai
Gemini (a Google AI Studio key) GEMINI_API_KEY gemini-api
Groq GROQ_API_KEY groq
OpenRouter (a hosted gateway) OPENROUTER_API_KEY openrouter
  • secrets set prompts for the key, and doesn't echo it.
  • --env=local is the environment the secret belongs to. Under kindgi dev, local is the pack's env files.
  • --scope=tenant is where the secret lives: the tenant, rather than one org (org:<orgId>) or project (project:<projectId>).
  • --preset=<preset> registers the provider's models from Kindgi's built-in preset, which reads the <KEY_NAME> secret.

secrets set then prints the secret's name, scope, environment and version as JSON, then Set <KEY_NAME> at tenant in local. providers register prints the provider's id as JSON, then ✓ Registered <preset>: with the preset's models, its default marked. Your agent's turns now go to that provider's default model.

Running the agent on its own shows its answer before the flow acts on it:

Terminal window
uv run kindgi runs start --agent=acme-desk.triage --input='{"userMessage":"Triage ticket T-101"}'
  • --agent=acme-desk.triage is the agent to run.
  • --input is the turn's input, as JSON: userMessage is what the agent is asked.

It prints the run, with the agent's answer in output:

"status": "completed",
…
"output": {
"reply": "Hi Grace, thank you for reaching out. I'm sorry to hear your team is locked out of production. …",
"category": "access",
"priority": "urgent"
},
Excerpt

The agent called get_ticket, read the ticket, and answered in the shape you gave it. Your reply will read differently, because it's the model's. To see the run's page, with each step, the tool call and the cost, run uv run kindgi console and open Runs.

The flow acts on the agent's answer. Run it once for each ticket:

Terminal window
uv run kindgi runs start --flow=acme-desk.handle-ticket --input='{"ticketId":"T-100"}'
uv run kindgi runs start --flow=acme-desk.handle-ticket --input='{"ticketId":"T-101"}'

--flow is the flow to run, and --input its run's input.

The first returns "category": "billing", "priority": "normal" and a drafted reply. The second returns "category": "access" and "priority": "urgent".

The journal shows which way each run went. For T-101, where <run-id> is the id that its runs start printed:

Terminal window
uv run kindgi runs journal <run-id>
"kind": "step.completed",
"nodeId": "triage",
…
"kind": "step.completed",
"nodeId": "escalate",
Excerpt

T-100 went through record-reply instead, and its ticket now has the drafted reply as a note.

You've built a pack whose agent triages tickets and whose flow acts on its answer.