Unit 5 · Build an agent that can use tools

Pause and ask instead of guessing

You make the agent ask when a missing fact would change an action or result. Your host persists that pause, resumes safely, and keeps failures distinct from final output.

8 focused minutesNot started

Unit example (nearest native match)

See the idea in context

var helper = Ax.agent("question:string -> answer:string");

Run itIn your own project

// Gradle (build.gradle):
implementation 'dev.axllm:ax:24.0.15'
// Maven (pom.xml):
<dependency>
  <groupId>dev.axllm</groupId>
  <artifactId>ax</artifactId>
  <version>24.0.15</version>
</dependency>

import dev.axllm.ax.Ax;
import java.util.Map;

public class QuickStart {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    var llm = Ax.ai("openai", Map.of("apiKey", System.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")));
    var classify = Ax.ax("review:string -> sentiment:class \"positive, negative, neutral\"");
    var result = classify.forward(llm, Map.of(
      "review", "Useful and boring in the best way."
    ));

    System.out.println("sentiment: " + result.get("sentiment"));
  }
}

Set OPENAI_APIKEY in your environment before running provider-backed code.

In the ax repo

From a clone of the ax repo:

npm run example -- java src/examples/java/short-agents/ToolsAgentExample.java

Active practice

Show that you can use it

Answer 2 in a row to learn this · attempt 1

Keep exploring

See the idea in context

Show that you can use it

Source-backed follow-up