Zeitlich Examples

Example applications for Zeitlich – durable AI agents for Temporal.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 18
• Temporal server (local dev: temporal server start-dev)
• Redis

Setup

npm install

Create a .env file with your API key and optionally override Temporal/Redis settings:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...
# TEMPORAL_ADDRESS=localhost:7233
# REDIS_HOST=localhost
# REDIS_PORT=6379

Run

1. Start Temporal (if not already running):

   npm run dev:temporal

2. Start the worker (in another terminal):

   npm run worker:multi-agent

3. Trigger a workflow (in another terminal):

   npm run start:multi-agent

Scripts

Script	Description
dev:temporal	Start Temporal dev server
worker:multi-agent	Run the multi-agent worker (watch)
start:multi-agent	Start the multi-agent workflow
typecheck	Run TypeScript check
lint / lint:fix	ESLint
format / format:check	Prettier

Examples

Multi-Agent (src/examples/multi-agent/)

A multi-agent debate system with a main orchestrator ("Herr Zeitlich") and two subagent philosophers (Nietzsche and Ayn Rand). Demonstrates tools, subagent delegation, state management, and in-memory filesystem access.

src/examples/multi-agent/
├── workflows.ts                        # Re-exports all workflows
├── worker.ts                           # Registers workflows/activities with ZeitlichPlugin
├── start.ts                            # Client script to trigger the workflow
└── agent/
    ├── workflow.ts                      # Main orchestrator workflow
    ├── activities.ts                    # LLM invocation + tool handler factories
    ├── config.ts                        # Agent name, system prompt, maxTurns
    ├── data.ts                          # In-memory filesystem (invoices, clients, etc.)
    └── subagents/
        ├── nietzsche/
        │   ├── workflow.ts              # Subagent workflow (returns string | null)
        │   ├── activities.ts            # Subagent LLM invocation
        │   └── config.ts               # Subagent personality & description
        └── ayn-rand/
            ├── workflow.ts
            ├── activities.ts
            └── config.ts

Key patterns demonstrated:

• defineTool() with per-tool hooks for state updates
• proxyDefaultThreadOps() for Redis-backed thread persistence
• createSession() with subagents, buildContextMessage, and systemPrompt
• invokeModel() with { config, model, redis, client } signature
• createBashHandler() / createAskUserQuestionHandler() factory pattern
• toTree() with an in-memory filesystem object

The app uses the published zeitlich package; workflow code imports from zeitlich/workflow, activities and worker from zeitlich.

Docs

• Zeitlich on npm
• Temporal docs

License

MIT