Examples

Every example in this list lives under examples/ in the repo. Two shapes:

• Config-only recipes — a self-contained .agents/ directory. Drop in, run core-agent, done. No Go code, no custom binary.
• Library examples — a single main.go you go run. Shows how to wire core-agent into your own Go program.

Pick by what you’re building.

Config-only recipes

Run with the bundled binary; no Go code on your side.

gke-parallel-triage

GKE incident-triage agent that fans out one investigator per service in parallel via spawn_agent, then synthesizes a root-cause report. Wires the GKE MCP server (read-only endpoint) via Application Default Credentials. Use when you have a GKE cluster and want the platform-engineering pattern.

Highlights: parallel subagent fan-out · MCP server integration · read-only by design · multi-model routing tunable (Pro orchestrator + Flash investigators)

plan-first

Substrate-enforced plan-before-action. The agent must call record_plan before any write_file/bash/etc. tool call succeeds — read tools stay open during research. Ships three config.json variants (ask / acceptEdits / yolo × require_plan_artifact) so you pick the post-plan friction level. Use when you want the safety of a written plan before the agent touches anything.

Highlights: gate-level enforcement (not just AGENTS.md convention) · plan artifacts on disk under .agents/plans/ · /replan slash to revoke + redraft · composes with every existing mode

gke-deploy

Deploy core-agent as a long-lived pod in a GKE cluster, reachable by operators over an internal HTTP LoadBalancer. Uses Workload Identity Federation for GKE direct binding (no Google Service Account in the middle — IAM roles bind directly to the KSA’s principal://... identifier) for credential-free Vertex AI inference + GKE read-only MCP access. Publishes an A2A AgentCard at /.well-known/agent-card.json for Google Cloud Agent Registry discovery, and opts into GKE Managed Workload Identity for auto-rotated SPIFFE certs (mTLS-ready; on-ramp to Google Cloud Agent Identity when GA). No Dockerfile in the recipe — uses the published ghcr.io/go-steer/core-agent:2.3.1 image. Use when you want a managed-runtime deployment of core-agent for a platform team or a long-running fleet auditor.

Highlights: WIF-for-GKE direct binding (no GSA / no key files) · internal LoadBalancer (VPC-only) · Agent Registry registration + A2A AgentCard discovery · GKE Managed Workload Identity (SPIFFE certs) · GKE read-only MCP wired · agentic small-model cost routing (Pro orchestrator + Flash tool subagents) · 10Gi PVC for session DB + plans · variant configs for Anthropic-on-Vertex + plan-first + slim image · operator attach via Cloud Workstations / IAP / VPN

Library quickstarts

Embedding core-agent in your own Go binary. Each is one main.go you go run.

basic

Minimal multi-turn agent — agent.New + a single Run loop. Gemini by default; GOOGLE_API_KEY required. Start here if you want the simplest “how do I drive the agent” answer.

with-tools

One custom tool plus MCP servers from .agents/mcp.json and skills from .agents/skills/. Shows how operator-defined and library-defined tools coexist.

with-subagent

Parent + subagent end-to-end with no LLM credentials — two scripted-mock providers drive both sides deterministically. The shape to copy when you want a fan-out structure in your own binary.

streaming

The standard built-in tools (read_file, list_dir, bash, …) wired into an interactive chat. Closest to “what the CLI does, but you own the binary.”

Autonomous (headless) patterns

Long-running agents driven by a goal rather than turn-by-turn operator prompts. All use agent.RunAutonomous.

autonomous

End-to-end agent.RunAutonomous against the mock “scripted” provider. No LLM credentials needed. Shows the full Goal → cost-bounded loop → terminal-report shape.

autonomous-handle

Same as above plus the AutonomousHandle API — Pause / Resume / Inject / Stop an in-flight run from another goroutine. Pattern for “long task + operator can steer mid-run.”

autonomous-resume

Drive a run, hit a tight max_turns budget (simulated crash), then continue from the eventlog. Shows the crash-resume contract.

background-monitor

Wire BackgroundAgentManager and demonstrate in-process spawn end-to-end with no LLM credentials. Use as the template for “parent agent + background subagent workers.”

scheduled-monitor

The supervision-tree topology from docs/scheduled-monitoring-design.md — periodic health sweeps with a scheduler + supervisor + worker layout. Pattern for cron-style monitoring agents.

Testing & debugging

replay

Drive the agent loop offline by replaying a recorded JSONL transcript through the mock “scripted” provider. Useful for regression tests, reproducing bugs from production captures, and CI runs that don’t need real LLM calls.

Composing recipes

The config-only recipes are designed to layer. With the v2 instruction loader, you can drop a recipe’s AGENTS.md into your existing project’s AGENTS.d/ and merge their config.json settings:

# Layer plan-first into an existing GKE-triage setup
mkdir -p <your-project>/.agents/AGENTS.d
cp examples/plan-first/.agents/AGENTS.md \
   <your-project>/.agents/AGENTS.d/00-plan-first.md

# Merge plan-first's permissions into the existing config.json
# (require_plan_artifact: true + read-tool allowlist)

The recipe READMEs (examples/<name>/README.md) each cover their own composition + tuning notes — read those before forking.

Don’t see what you need?

• Want help picking? Getting started walks the same decision tree end-to-end.
• Building something new? The patterns in Agent design generalize across these examples — start there for prompt + tool-description guidance.
• Idea for a recipe? Open a GitHub discussion. Recipes ship as PRs against examples/.