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.

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Unit example (nearest native match)

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let helper = agent("question:string -> answer:string")?;

Run itIn your own project

cargo add axllm

use axllm::{ai, ax, AxResult};
use serde_json::json;

fn main() -> AxResult<()> {
    let mut llm = ai("openai", json!({"apiKey": std::env::var("OPENAI_API_KEY")?}))?;
    let mut classify = ax("review:string -> sentiment:class \"positive, negative, neutral\"")?;
    let result = classify.forward(&mut llm, json!({
        "review": "Useful and boring in the best way."
    }))?;

    println!("sentiment: {}", result["sentiment"].as_str().unwrap_or_default());
    Ok(())
}

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 -- rust src/examples/rust/short-agents/tools_agent.rs

Active practice

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