LangGraph Implementation

Core Concepts

LangGraph builds stateful, multi-actor agent applications using a graph-based architecture:

• StateGraph: Builder class for defining graphs with shared state
• Nodes: Functions that read state and return partial updates
• Edges: Define execution flow (static or conditional)
• Channels: Internal state management (LastValue, BinaryOperatorAggregate)
• Checkpointer: Persistence for pause/resume capabilities

Essential Imports

from langgraph.graph import StateGraph, START, END
from langgraph.graph.message import MessagesState, add_messages
from langgraph.checkpoint.memory import InMemorySaver
from langgraph.types import Command, Send, interrupt, RetryPolicy
from typing import Annotated
from typing_extensions import TypedDict

State Schema Patterns

Basic State with TypedDict

class State(TypedDict):
    counter: int                                    # LastValue - stores last value
    messages: Annotated[list, operator.add]         # Reducer - appends lists
    items: Annotated[list, lambda a, b: a + [b] if b else a]  # Custom reducer

MessagesState for Chat Applications

from langgraph.graph.message import MessagesState

class State(MessagesState):
    # Inherits: messages: Annotated[list[AnyMessage], add_messages]
    user_id: str
    context: dict

Pydantic State (for validation)

from pydantic import BaseModel

class State(BaseModel):
    messages: Annotated[list, add_messages]
    validated_field: str  # Pydantic validates on assignment

Building Graphs

Basic Pattern

builder = StateGraph(State)

# Add nodes - functions that take state, return partial updates
builder.add_node("process", process_fn)
builder.add_node("decide", decide_fn)

# Add edges
builder.add_edge(START, "process")
builder.add_edge("process", "decide")
builder.add_edge("decide", END)

# Compile
graph = builder.compile()

Node Function Signature

def my_node(state: State) -> dict:
    """Node receives full state, returns partial update."""
    return {"counter": state["counter"] + 1}

# With config access
def my_node(state: State, config: RunnableConfig) -> dict:
    thread_id = config["configurable"]["thread_id"]
    return {"result": process(state, thread_id)}

# With Runtime context (v0.6+)
def my_node(state: State, runtime: Runtime[Context]) -> dict:
    user_id = runtime.context.get("user_id")
    return {"result": user_id}

Conditional Edges

from typing import Literal

def router(state: State) -> Literal["agent", "tools", "__end__"]:
    last_msg = state["messages"][-1]
    if hasattr(last_msg, "tool_calls") and last_msg.tool_calls:
        return "tools"
    return END  # or "__end__"

builder.add_conditional_edges("agent", router)

# With path_map for visualization
builder.add_conditional_edges(
    "agent",
    router,
    path_map={"agent": "agent", "tools": "tools", "__end__": END}
)

Command Pattern (Dynamic Routing + State Update)

from langgraph.types import Command

def dynamic_node(state: State) -> Command[Literal["next", "__end__"]]:
    if state["should_continue"]:
        return Command(goto="next", update={"step": state["step"] + 1})
    return Command(goto=END)

# Must declare destinations for visualization
builder.add_node("dynamic", dynamic_node, destinations=["next", END])

Send Pattern (Fan-out/Map-Reduce)

from langgraph.types import Send

def fan_out(state: State) -> list[Send]:
    """Route to multiple node instances with different inputs."""
    return [Send("worker", {"item": item}) for item in state["items"]]

builder.add_conditional_edges(START, fan_out)
builder.add_edge("worker", "aggregate")  # Workers converge

Checkpointing

Enable Persistence

from langgraph.checkpoint.memory import InMemorySaver
from langgraph.checkpoint.sqlite import SqliteSaver  # Development
from langgraph.checkpoint.postgres import PostgresSaver  # Production

# In-memory (testing only)
graph = builder.compile(checkpointer=InMemorySaver())

# SQLite (development)
with SqliteSaver.from_conn_string("checkpoints.db") as checkpointer:
    graph = builder.compile(checkpointer=checkpointer)

# Thread-based invocation
config = {"configurable": {"thread_id": "user-123"}}
result = graph.invoke({"messages": [...]}, config)

State Management

# Get current state
state = graph.get_state