Is there way to test agents locally without vertex AI and adk webs

[jahidhasanlinix]

Hi, I was working on adk lately, and using adk web to run the agent on the default UI. I was wondering, what easy way I can local development of my agent without adk webs and vertex ai to test? Is there any examples to look into, there's no documentation so it's kinda hard to fix it with my frontend chat. Any suggestions. Thanks

[adk-bot]

Response from ADK Answering Agent

TLDR: Yes, you can test your ADK agent locally without deploying to Vertex AI. The primary tool for this is adk web, which starts a local web server and UI for interactive testing. You can configure it to use an API key from Google AI Studio instead of Vertex AI.

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Hello! It's great to hear you're working with ADK. You've asked about local development without needing adk web and Vertex AI, but adk web is actually the primary tool designed for local development and debugging. [1, 2] It runs a local server with a user interface so you can interact with your agent directly on your machine. [5, 8]

Here’s how you can set up your local environment to test without relying on Vertex AI:

Local Testing with adk web and a Google AI Studio API Key

You can run your agent locally by pointing the ADK to use a Gemini API key from Google AI Studio instead of a Vertex AI endpoint. This is a common setup for local development and prototyping. [10, 12]

1. Get a Google AI Studio API Key: You can obtain one from the Google AI Studio. [20]

2. Set Environment Variables: In your project, create a .env file or set the following environment variables in your terminal. The ADK will automatically load these. [10]

   export GOOGLE_GENAI_USE_VERTEXAI=FALSE
   export GOOGLE_API_KEY="YOUR_GOOGLE_AI_KEY"

   By setting GOOGLE_GENAI_USE_VERTEXAI to FALSE, you tell ADK to use the API key for authentication instead of trying to connect to a Vertex AI endpoint. [10, 16, 25]

3. Run the ADK Web Server: From your project's root directory, run the following command:

   adk web

   This will start a local server, usually at http://localhost:8000, where you can open the web UI in your browser to chat with your agent. [2, 6]

Other Local Development Options

While adk web is recommended for interactive testing, ADK provides other tools for a comprehensive local development workflow:

• adk run: For quick, stateless checks of your agent's functionality directly in your terminal. [1, 9]
• pytest: For writing automated unit and integration tests for your tools and agent logic. This is great for ensuring your agent's components work as expected. [1]
• adk api_server: If you want to test the agent's API endpoints directly, this command starts a local FastAPI server without the UI. You can then send curl requests to it to test API interactions. [2, 9]

Examples to Get Started

The official documentation includes a progressive tutorial that is perfect for understanding how to build and test agents locally. You can find it in the ADK repository and run each step using adk web. [5]

I hope this helps you set up your local development environment. Happy building!

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References:
[1] https://github.com/google/adk-python/blob/main/contributing/adk_project_overview_and_architecture.md
[2] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/get-started/testing.md
[5] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/examples/python/tutorial/agent_team/adk-tutorial/readme.md
[6] https://github.com/google/adk-python/blob/main/src/google/adk/cli/cli_tools_click.py
[8] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/get-started/streaming/quickstart-streaming.md
[9] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/get-started/quickstart.md
[10] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/agents/models.md
[12] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/sessions/memory.md
[16] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/get-started/streaming/quickstart-streaming-java.md
[20] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/streaming/dev-guide/part1.md
[25] https://github.com/google/adk-docs/blob/main/docs/tutorials/agent-team.md

[jahidhasanlinix]

Well I mean I don't wanna use adk web, I wanna use my custom frontend chat where to test it. So on my server side (backend) how do I local test localhost:3000 or 8000 to chat with my adk agents without using adk web interface, how do I do that?

[xuanyang15]

@jahidhasanlinix Thanks for your question! Does the adk run or adk api_server options work for you?

[jahidhasanlinix]

@xuanyang15 it does work. I was trying to make a full stack version of connecting server and client side. Usually I do python main.py while due to ask I need to run with adk webs or adk run. Is it a common practice for Google adk that when I local test or even for production it will always be through either one based on your screenshot or I can run through normally without creating an app name or session ID?