Unit 9 · Connect to external tools and data

Handle long-running MCP work

Modern servers may return a task from an ordinary tool call, which Ax can auto-await or expose for input, cancellation, and observation. Legacy task-draft APIs remain compatibility-only.

11 focused minutesNot started

Worked example

See the idea in context

client.init();
String taskId = String.valueOf(castMap(
    client.callTool("start_reindex", Map.of("scope", "all"))
        .get("task")).get("taskId"));
AxEventRuntime.Target target = new AxEventRuntime.Target(
    "reindex-flow", invokeFlow)
    .mapInput((event, continuation) -> Map.of("taskId",
        continuation == null ? castMap(event.data()).get("taskId")
            : continuation.metadata.get("taskId")))
    .waitFor("mcp.task", "taskKey", Map.of("taskId", taskId));
runtime.registerTarget(target);
runtime.start();
source.start(event -> runtime.publish(
    event, source.identityScope(), source.trust()));

Run itIn your own project

// Gradle (build.gradle):
implementation 'dev.axllm:ax:22.0.4'
// Maven (pom.xml):
<dependency>
  <groupId>dev.axllm</groupId>
  <artifactId>ax</artifactId>
  <version>22.0.4</version>
</dependency>

import dev.axllm.ax.Ax;

var llm = Ax.ai("openai", Map.of("apiKey", System.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")));
var classify = Ax.ax("review:string -> sentiment:class \"positive, negative, neutral\"");

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/mcp/NativeMCPToolsExample.java

Active practice

Show that you can use it

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Keep exploring

See the idea in context

Show that you can use it

Source-backed follow-up