11 - Configuration Reference

This document specifies all configurable settings, their defaults, hardcoded constants, and extension points.

User-Facing Configuration

All configuration is done through builder methods on domain objects. There are no configuration files, environment variables, or property files.

Agent Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Required	Description
role	String	—	Yes	The agent’s role/title. Used in prompts and logging.
goal	String	—	Yes	The agent’s primary objective. Included in system prompt.
background	String	null	No	Background context for the agent persona. Included in system prompt if present.
tools	List<Object>	List.of()	No	Tools available to this agent. Each must be AgentTool or @Tool-annotated object.
llm	ChatLanguageModel	—	Yes	The LangChain4j model to use.
allowDelegation	boolean	false	No	Reserved for Phase 2. Whether the agent can delegate to other agents.
verbose	boolean	false	No	When true, elevates prompt/response logging to INFO level.
maxIterations	int	25	No	Maximum tool call iterations before forcing a final answer. Must be > 0.
responseFormat	String	""	No	Extra formatting instructions appended to system prompt.

Task Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Required	Description
description	String	—	Yes	What the agent should do. Supports {variable} templates.
expectedOutput	String	—	Yes	What the output should look like. Supports templates.
agent	Agent	—	Yes	The agent assigned to this task.
context	List<Task>	List.of()	No	Tasks whose outputs feed into this task as context.

Ensemble Configuration

Setting	Type	Default	Required	Description
agents	List<Agent>	—	Yes	All agents participating. Must not be empty.
tasks	List<Task>	—	Yes	All tasks to execute, in order. Must not be empty.
workflow	Workflow	SEQUENTIAL	No	How tasks are executed.
verbose	boolean	false	No	When true, elevates logging for all tasks/agents to INFO.
memory	EnsembleMemory	null	No	Memory configuration (short-term, long-term, entity).
maxDelegationDepth	int	3	No	Maximum peer-delegation depth. Must be > 0.
toolExecutor	Executor	virtual threads	No	Executor for parallel tool calls within a single LLM turn.
toolMetrics	ToolMetrics	NoOpToolMetrics	No	Metrics backend for tool execution timings.
listeners	List<EnsembleListener>	List.of()	No	Event listeners for task/tool/delegation lifecycle events.
inputs	Map<String, String>	{}	No	Template variable values applied to task descriptions.
hierarchicalConstraints	HierarchicalConstraints	null	No	Constraints for hierarchical workflow (required workers, caps).
delegationPolicies	List<DelegationPolicy>	List.of()	No	Custom policies evaluated before each delegation.
costConfiguration	CostConfiguration	null	No	Per-token cost rates for monetary cost estimation.
traceExporter	ExecutionTraceExporter	null	No	Called after each run with the complete execution trace.
captureMode	CaptureMode	OFF	No	Depth of data collection: OFF, STANDARD, or FULL. Can also be set via the agentensemble.captureMode system property or AGENTENSEMBLE_CAPTURE_MODE environment variable.

Workflow Options

Value	Description	Status
SEQUENTIAL	Tasks execute one after another. Output from earlier tasks can feed as context to later tasks.	Implemented
HIERARCHICAL	A manager agent delegates tasks to worker agents.	Phase 2

Hardcoded Constants

These values are internal framework constants, not configurable by users. They are defined as private static final fields in the relevant classes.

Constant	Value	Class	Rationale
MAX_STOP_MESSAGES	3	AgentExecutor	After 3 “please stop” messages, the agent is considered stuck and MaxIterationsExceededException is thrown.
CONTEXT_LENGTH_WARN_THRESHOLD	10000	AgentPromptBuilder	Log a WARN when context from a single task exceeds this character count.
LOG_TRUNCATE_LENGTH	200	AgentExecutor	Tool input/output and output previews are truncated to this length in INFO logs.
MDC_DESCRIPTION_MAX_LENGTH	80	SequentialWorkflowExecutor	Task description is truncated in MDC to keep diagnostic context concise.
ERROR_TEMPLATE_MAX_LENGTH	100	TemplateResolver	Template string is truncated in error messages.
CHAT_MEMORY_MAX_MESSAGES	20	AgentExecutor	Maximum messages retained in the agent’s chat memory window during tool-use loops.

Rationale for Hardcoding

These constants represent sensible defaults that rarely need changing. Making them configurable would add API surface without proportional value. If users need different values, they can:

1. Open a GitHub issue requesting the constant be made configurable
2. Fork the framework and change the constant
3. In Phase 2+, we may expose some of these as configuration options if demand exists

Extension Points

Custom Tools

The primary extension point. Users create tools by:

1. Implementing the AgentTool interface
2. Creating classes with @dev.langchain4j.agent.tool.Tool annotated methods

See 06-tool-system.md for details.

Custom LLM Providers

Users provide any ChatLanguageModel implementation from LangChain4j:

• OpenAiChatModel (OpenAI / Azure OpenAI)
• AnthropicChatModel (Anthropic Claude)
• OllamaChatModel (Ollama / local models)
• VertexAiGeminiChatModel (Google Vertex AI)
• BedrockChatModel (Amazon Bedrock)
• Custom implementations of the ChatLanguageModel interface

Custom Workflow Executors (Phase 2)

The WorkflowExecutor interface allows custom execution strategies:

public interface WorkflowExecutor {
    EnsembleOutput execute(List<Task> resolvedTasks, boolean verbose);
}

In Phase 1, only SequentialWorkflowExecutor is provided. In Phase 2, HierarchicalWorkflowExecutor and ParallelWorkflowExecutor will be added. Users could also implement custom strategies.

What Is NOT Configurable

Feature	Why Not
Prompt templates	Fixed in AgentPromptBuilder. Custom prompt strategies planned for Phase 2.
Tool execution timeout	Users should implement timeouts within their AgentTool.execute() method.
Retry behavior for LLM calls	LangChain4j model instances handle retries. Configure at the model level.
Logging format	Configured via the user’s SLF4J implementation (Logback, Log4j2, etc.).
Memory / persistence	Phase 2 feature.