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Installing ADK TypeScript

This guide explains how to install the Agent Development Kit (ADK) for TypeScript and set up your development environment.

Prerequisites

ADK TypeScript requires: - Node.js (v18 or higher) - npm (included with Node.js) or yarn

If you don't have Node.js installed, download and install it from nodejs.org.

Installation

Install ADK TypeScript locally in your project and use npx to run commands. This ensures consistent versions across development and production environments.

# Create your project directory
mkdir my-adk-project
cd my-adk-project

# Create your first agent (this will set up everything automatically)
npx adk create my-weather-agent

The npx adk create command will automatically: - Initialize your project with package.json and tsconfig.json (if not already present) - Install all necessary dependencies including ADK TypeScript - Set up the project structure - Create your agent with sample code - Walk you through configuring your LLM backend

Using the ADK Commands

Use npx adk to run all commands:

# Create a new agent project
npx adk create my-weather-agent

# Run an agent in terminal
npx adk run my-weather-agent

# Start the web UI
npx adk web my-weather-agent

# Run the API server
npx adk api_server --agent_dir my-weather-agent

# Evaluate an agent
npx adk eval my-weather-agent eval_data.test.json

# Generate agent graph
npx adk graph my-weather-agent --output graph.png

Project Structure

When you create an agent with npx adk create, it generates an efficient, scalable project structure:

my-adk-project/               # Your parent project folder
├── my-weather-agent/         # Your agent's code folder
│   ├── agent.ts              # Agent definition
│   └── .env                  # API keys for this agent
├── package.json              # SHARED Node.js project manifest
├── tsconfig.json             # SHARED TypeScript configuration
└── dist/                     # (Created after build) Compiled output

This structure allows multiple agents to share dependencies while keeping their code and configuration separate.

Building and Running

After creating your agent, you need to build and run it:

# Install dependencies (only needed once, or if you add more agents)
npm install

# Build your TypeScript code
npm run build

# Run your agent
npx adk run my-weather-agent
# or start the web UI
npx adk web my-weather-agent

Next Steps