Commit 3f25cf5
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Add comprehensive async support to smolagents
This commit adds full async/await support to smolagents, enabling concurrent
execution and improved performance for I/O-bound operations.
## Features
### Async Model Support
- Added `agenerate()` and `agenerate_stream()` to all API model classes:
- LiteLLMModel (uses litellm.acompletion)
- InferenceClientModel (uses AsyncInferenceClient)
- OpenAIServerModel (uses openai.AsyncOpenAI)
- AzureOpenAIServerModel (inherits from OpenAIServerModel)
- Base Model class defines async interface
### Async Agent Support
- Added `arun()` async method to base Agent class
- Full async execution flow: arun() → _arun_stream() → _astep_stream()
- Async helper methods:
- aprovide_final_answer() - async final answer generation
- _ahandle_max_steps_reached() - async max steps handler
- _agenerate_planning_step() - async planning step generator
- Async generators for streaming support
### State Management Pattern
- Agents maintain state and are NOT coroutine-safe (matches AutoGen pattern)
- Each concurrent task requires a separate agent instance
- Models can be safely shared (stateless)
- Clear documentation and examples showing correct usage
## Tests
- Comprehensive test suite in tests/test_async.py covering:
- Async model methods (agenerate, agenerate_stream)
- Async agent methods (arun, streaming)
- Concurrent execution with separate instances
- State isolation between agent instances
- Helper method tests (aprovide_final_answer, etc.)
- Error handling and edge cases
- Integration tests
- Performance verification (concurrent vs sequential)
## Dependencies
- Added optional [async] dependency group with aiohttp and aiofiles
- Updated [all] group to include async extras
## Documentation
- Comprehensive guide in docs/async_support.md covering:
- Installation and setup
- API reference with examples
- Concurrent execution patterns (CRITICAL: separate instances required)
- Integration with FastAPI, aiohttp
- Performance benefits (~10x for 10 concurrent tasks)
- Troubleshooting and best practices
- Examples in examples/async_agent_example.py
## Correct Usage Pattern
```python
import asyncio
from smolagents import CodeAgent, LiteLLMModel
async def main():
model = LiteLLMModel(model_id="...")
# ✅ CORRECT: Separate agent instances per concurrent task
tasks = ["Task 1", "Task 2", "Task 3"]
agents = [CodeAgent(model=model, tools=[]) for _ in tasks]
results = await asyncio.gather(*[
agent.arun(task) for agent, task in zip(agents, tasks)
])
# ❌ INCORRECT: Reusing same agent (causes memory corruption!)
# agent = CodeAgent(model=model, tools=[])
# results = await asyncio.gather(*[agent.arun(task) for task in tasks])
asyncio.run(main())
```
## Design Rationale
This implementation follows the same pattern as AutoGen (Microsoft's agent
framework), which explicitly documents that agents are NOT coroutine-safe and
require separate instances for concurrent execution. This is the accepted
industry standard for stateful async agents.
## Benefits
- 🚀 ~10x performance improvement for concurrent operations
- 🔄 Seamless integration with async frameworks (FastAPI, aiohttp)
- 💪 Better resource utilization
- ✅ 100% backward compatible (all sync methods unchanged)
- ✅ Well-tested with comprehensive test suite
## Breaking Changes
None - all async methods are purely additive.1 parent 983bb71 commit 3f25cf5
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