Lesson 1: Basic Agents

Welcome to your first AgentMap lesson! You'll learn the fundamentals by building a simple but powerful workflow that collects user input, processes it with AI, and saves results to a CSV file.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will:

• ✅ Understand the basic AgentMap workflow structure
• ✅ Use InputAgent to collect user data
• ✅ Process data with LLMAgent (AI)
• ✅ Save results with CSVWriterAgent
• ✅ Run your first complete workflow

Overview: What We're Building

We'll create a Personal Goal Tracker that:

1. Collects a personal goal from the user
2. Analyzes the goal using AI to provide insights and suggestions
3. Saves the goal and AI analysis to a CSV file for tracking

Step 1: Download the Workflow File

First, let's get the pre-built workflow file for this lesson.

Step 2: Understanding the Workflow Structure

Let's examine each part of our workflow:

CSV File Structure

Every AgentMap workflow is defined in a CSV file with these columns:

Column	Purpose	Example
workflow	Workflow name	PersonalGoals
node	Node name	GetGoal
description	Human-readable description	Collect user's personal goal
type	Agent type	input, llm, csv_writer, echo
next_node	Success path	AnalyzeGoal
error_node	Error path	ErrorHandler
input_fields	Expected inputs	goal
output_field	Output field name	analysis
prompt	Agent prompt/instruction	AI prompt text
context	Agent configuration	JSON with agent settings

Workflow Flow

1. GetGoal (InputAgent): Prompts user for their personal goal
2. AnalyzeGoal (LLMAgent): AI analyzes the goal and provides insights
3. SaveGoal (CSVWriterAgent): Saves both goal and analysis to CSV
4. ThankUser (Echo): Confirms successful save
5. ErrorHandler: Handles any errors gracefully

Step 3: Agent Deep Dive

InputAgent

PersonalGoals,GetGoal,Collect user's personal goal,input,AnalyzeGoal,ErrorHandler,,goal,What personal goal would you like to work on this year? Please be specific:,

Purpose: Collects user input interactively

• Prompt: What users see when prompted for input
• Output: Stores user response in the goal field

LLMAgent

PersonalGoals,AnalyzeGoal,AI analysis of the goal,llm,SaveGoal,ErrorHandler,goal,analysis,"You are a personal development coach...","{""provider"": ""anthropic"", ""model"": ""claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022"", ""temperature"": 0.3}"

Purpose: Uses AI to analyze and provide insights

• Input: Takes the goal from previous step
• Prompt: Detailed instructions for the AI
• Context: Configuration using Python dict syntax
  • provider: Which AI service (anthropic, openai, google)
  • model: Specific AI model to use
  • temperature: Creativity level (0.0-1.0)

CSVWriterAgent

PersonalGoals,SaveGoal,Save goal and analysis to CSV,csv_writer,ThankUser,ErrorHandler,"goal,analysis",save_result,data/personal_goals.csv,"{""format"": ""records"", ""mode"": ""append""}"

Purpose: Saves data to CSV file

• Input: Both goal and analysis fields
• Prompt: File path where data will be saved
• Context: Configuration for CSV writing
  • format: How to structure the data (records for rows)
  • mode: How to write (append to add new rows)

Step 4: Running Your Workflow

Prerequisites Setup

Make sure you have an AI provider configured. For this lesson, we'll use Anthropic (Claude):

# Set your API key (required for LLMAgent)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Create Project Directory

# Create a workspace for your lessons
mkdir agentmap-learning
cd agentmap-learning

# Create data directory for CSV outputs
mkdir data

Save and Run the Workflow

1. Save the downloaded lesson1.csv file in your project directory
2. Run the workflow:

agentmap run lesson1.csv

Expected Interaction

What personal goal would you like to work on this year? Please be specific:
> I want to learn Python programming and build 3 projects by year-end

[AI processes your goal...]

Thank you! Your goal and AI analysis have been saved. 
You can view your goals database at data/personal_goals.csv

Step 5: Examining the Results

After running the workflow, check your output file:

# View the saved data
cat data/personal_goals.csv

You should see something like:

goal,analysis
"I want to learn Python programming and build 3 projects by year-end","This is an excellent SMART goal! Here's my analysis:

1) Why this goal is valuable: Learning Python opens doors to web development, data science, automation, and AI. Building projects demonstrates practical application and creates a portfolio.

2) Three specific action steps:
   - Week 1-4: Complete Python basics course (variables, functions, classes)
   - Week 5-8: Start project 1 (simple calculator or to-do app)
   - Month 3-4: Build project 2 (web scraper or data analysis tool)

3) Potential challenge: Time management and staying motivated during difficult concepts. Overcome by: Set daily 30-minute coding blocks, join Python community for support, and celebrate small wins."

Step 6: Exercises and Experimentation

Exercise 1: Modify the AI Prompt

Try changing the LLMAgent prompt to focus on different aspects:

Business Goals Focus:

You are a business advisor. Analyze this goal for: 1) Market potential 2) Required resources 3) Success metrics. Goal: {goal}

Health Goals Focus:

You are a fitness coach. For this goal provide: 1) Health benefits 2) Weekly action plan 3) Progress tracking methods. Goal: {goal}

Exercise 2: Adjust AI Settings

Experiment with the context parameters:

More Creative Analysis (higher temperature):

{"provider": "anthropic", "model": "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022", "temperature": 0.8}

More Focused Analysis (lower temperature):

{"provider": "anthropic", "model": "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022", "temperature": 0.1}

Exercise 3: Change the Output File

Modify the CSVWriterAgent to save to different files:

• data/business_goals.csv
• data/health_goals.csv
• data/learning_goals.csv

Key Concepts Learned

1. Workflow Definition

• AgentMap workflows are defined in CSV files
• Each row represents a node (agent) in the workflow
• Nodes are connected through next_node and error_node

2. Agent Types

• InputAgent: Collects user input interactively
• LLMAgent: Processes data using AI/language models
• CSVWriterAgent: Saves data to CSV files
• Echo: Displays messages to users

3. Context Configuration

• Uses Python dictionary syntax: {"key": "value"}
• Different agents accept different context parameters
• Context controls agent behavior and capabilities

4. Data Flow

• Data flows through the workflow via named fields
• Each agent can use outputs from previous agents
• Input/output field names connect the workflow

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Issue: "Provider not configured"

Solution: Make sure your API key is set:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-key"
# or
export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key"

Issue: "File not found" error for CSV writing

Solution: Create the data directory:

mkdir data

Issue: Workflow doesn't start

Solution: Check your CSV file syntax:

• No missing commas
• Proper quotes around text with commas
• All required columns present

Next Steps

Congratulations! You've successfully:

• ✅ Created your first AgentMap workflow
• ✅ Used three fundamental agent types
• ✅ Configured AI behavior through context parameters
• ✅ Saved workflow results to a CSV file

You now understand the basic building blocks of AgentMap. In the next lesson, we'll enhance this workflow by diving deeper into prompt engineering and customization.

Continue to Lesson 2: Custom Prompts →

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Additional Resources

• Built-in Agents Guide
• Custom Agents Guide
• Features & Capabilities
• API Reference

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💡 Pro Tip: Save your working lesson1.csv file - you'll enhance it in the next lesson! Also, try running the workflow multiple times with different goals to see how the AI adapts its analysis.