Durable Transport

The default Transport.websocket() uses in-process queues. For production deployments that require durability and horizontal scaling, use the agentensemble-transport-kafka module or implement the transport SPIs against your infrastructure.

Transport Modes

Mode	Factory	Backing	Use case
Simple	`Transport.websocket(name)`	In-process queues + maps	Development, testing
Simple + delivery	`Transport.simple(name, registry)`	In-process queues + `DeliveryRegistry`	Multi-delivery local dev
Kafka	Custom wiring (see below)	Kafka topics	Production

Kafka Transport Setup

Add the agentensemble-transport-kafka module to your project. All Kafka components share a single KafkaTransportConfig:

KafkaTransportConfig config = KafkaTransportConfig.builder()
    .bootstrapServers("kafka:9092")
    .consumerGroupId("kitchen-ensemble")
    .topicPrefix("agentensemble.")  // default
    .build();

KafkaRequestQueue

Kafka-backed RequestQueue. Produces work requests to Kafka topics and consumes them with manual offset commits.

KafkaRequestQueue queue = KafkaRequestQueue.create(config);

// Enqueue a work request
queue.enqueue("kitchen", workRequest);

// Dequeue (blocking with timeout)
WorkRequest received = queue.dequeue("kitchen", Duration.ofSeconds(30));

// Acknowledge after processing (commits offsets)
queue.acknowledge("kitchen", received.requestId());

Topic names follow the pattern <topicPrefix><queueName> (e.g., agentensemble.kitchen).

KafkaTopicDelivery

Kafka-backed DeliveryHandler for the TOPIC delivery method. Publishes work responses to the Kafka topic specified in the DeliverySpec.address().

KafkaTopicDelivery topicDelivery = new KafkaTopicDelivery(config);

KafkaTopicIngress

Kafka-backed IngressSource. Subscribes to a Kafka topic on a virtual thread and pushes deserialized WorkRequest objects to a consumer sink.

KafkaTopicIngress ingress = new KafkaTopicIngress(config, "work-requests");
ingress.start(transport::send);

DeliveryRegistry Wiring

DeliveryRegistry registry = DeliveryRegistry.withDefaults(ResultStore.inMemory());
registry.register(new KafkaTopicDelivery(config));
registry.register(new WebhookDeliveryHandler());
registry.register(new QueueDeliveryHandler((queueName, response) -> {
    kafkaQueue.enqueue(queueName, toWorkRequest(response));
}));

Transport transport = Transport.simple("kitchen", registry);

DeliveryRegistry.withDefaults() pre-registers StoreDeliveryHandler and NoneDeliveryHandler. Additional handlers are registered one per DeliveryMethod.

IngressCoordinator Wiring

Accept work from multiple sources simultaneously:

IngressCoordinator ingress = IngressCoordinator.builder()
    .add(new HttpIngress(8080))
    .add(new QueueIngress(kafkaQueue, "kitchen"))
    .add(new KafkaTopicIngress(config, "kitchen-requests"))
    .build();

ingress.startAll(transport::send);

All sources push into the same sink. Call ingress.stopAll() (or use try-with-resources) to shut down all sources.

Idempotency & Caching

With durable transport, duplicate delivery is possible. Use IdempotencyGuard and ResultCache to handle this:

IdempotencyGuard guard = IdempotencyGuard.inMemory();
ResultCache cache = ResultCache.inMemory();
RequestHandler handler = new CachingRequestHandler(baseHandler, guard, cache);

The IdempotencyGuard tracks request IDs to prevent re-execution. The ResultCache caches results by semantic cache key so that identical requests share results.

Both provide inMemory() factories for development. Implement the interfaces against Redis or a database for production.

Full Production Example

// Kafka config
KafkaTransportConfig kafkaConfig = KafkaTransportConfig.builder()
    .bootstrapServers("kafka:9092")
    .consumerGroupId("kitchen-ensemble")
    .build();

// Request queue (durable)
KafkaRequestQueue queue = KafkaRequestQueue.create(kafkaConfig);

// Delivery registry
DeliveryRegistry deliveryRegistry = DeliveryRegistry.withDefaults(ResultStore.inMemory());
deliveryRegistry.register(new KafkaTopicDelivery(kafkaConfig));

// Transport with pluggable delivery
Transport transport = Transport.simple("kitchen", deliveryRegistry);

// Multi-source ingress
IngressCoordinator ingress = IngressCoordinator.builder()
    .add(new HttpIngress(8080))
    .add(new QueueIngress(queue, "kitchen"))
    .add(new KafkaTopicIngress(kafkaConfig, "kitchen-requests"))
    .build();

ingress.startAll(transport::send);

// Idempotency
IdempotencyGuard guard = IdempotencyGuard.inMemory();
ResultCache cache = ResultCache.inMemory();

// Ensemble with scheduled tasks
Ensemble kitchen = Ensemble.builder()
    .chatLanguageModel(model)
    .task(Task.of("Manage kitchen operations"))
    .scheduledTask(ScheduledTask.builder()
        .name("inventory-report")
        .task(Task.of("Check inventory levels"))
        .schedule(Schedule.every(Duration.ofHours(1)))
        .broadcastTo("hotel.inventory")
        .build())
    .broadcastHandler((topic, result) -> {
        log.info("Broadcast to {}: {}", topic, result);
    })
    .webDashboard(WebDashboard.builder().port(7329).build())
    .build();

kitchen.start(7329);