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An Agent Strategy Plugin helps an LLM carry out tasks like reasoning or decision-making, including choosing and calling tools, as well as handling results. This allows the system to address problems more autonomously. Below, you’ll see how to develop a plugin that supports Function Calling to automatically fetch the current time.

Prerequisites

  • Dify plugin scaffolding tool
  • Python environment (version ≥ 3.12)
For details on preparing the plugin development tool, see Initializing the Development Tool.
Tip: Run dify version in your terminal to confirm that the scaffolding tool is installed.

1. Initializing the Plugin Template

Run the following command to create a development template for your Agent plugin:
Follow the on-screen prompts and refer to the sample comments for guidance.
After initialization, you’ll get a folder containing all the resources needed for plugin development. Familiarizing yourself with the overall structure of an Agent Strategy Plugin will streamline the development process:
All key functionality for this plugin is in the strategies/ directory.

2. Developing the Plugin

Agent Strategy Plugin development revolves around two files:
  • Plugin Declaration: strategies/basic_agent.yaml
  • Plugin Implementation: strategies/basic_agent.py

2.1 Defining Parameters

To build an Agent plugin, start by specifying the necessary parameters in strategies/basic_agent.yaml. These parameters define the plugin’s core features, such as calling an LLM or using tools. We recommend including the following four parameters first:
  1. model: The large language model to call (e.g., GPT-4, GPT-4o-mini).
  2. tools: A list of tools that enhance your plugin’s functionality.
  3. query: The user input or prompt content sent to the model.
  4. maximum_iterations: The maximum iteration count to prevent excessive computation.
Example Code:
Once you’ve configured these parameters, the plugin will automatically generate a user-friendly interface so you can easily manage them: Agent Strategy Plugin UI

2.2 Retrieving Parameters and Execution

After users fill out these basic fields, your plugin needs to process the submitted parameters. In strategies/basic_agent.py, define a parameter class for the Agent, then retrieve and apply these parameters in your logic. Verify incoming parameters:
After getting the parameters, the specific business logic is executed:

3. Invoking the Model

In an Agent Strategy Plugin, invoking the model is central to the workflow. You can invoke an LLM efficiently using session.model.llm.invoke() from the SDK, handling text generation, dialogue, and so forth. If you want the LLM handle tools, ensure it outputs structured parameters to match a tool’s interface. In other words, the LLM must produce input arguments that the tool can accept based on the user’s instructions. Construct the following parameters:
  • model
  • prompt_messages
  • tools
  • stop
  • stream
Example code for method definition:
To view the complete functionality implementation, please refer to the Example Code for model invocation. This code achieves the following functionality: after a user inputs a command, the Agent strategy plugin automatically calls the LLM, constructs the necessary parameters for tool invocation based on the generated results, and enables the model to flexibly dispatch integrated tools to efficiently complete complex tasks. Request parameters for generating tools

4. Handle a Tool

After specifying the tool parameters, the Agent Strategy Plugin must actually call these tools. Use session.tool.invoke() to make those requests. Construct the following parameters:
  • provider
  • tool_name
  • parameters
Example code for method definition:
If you’d like the LLM itself to generate the parameters needed for tool calls, you can do so by combining the model’s output with your tool-calling code.
With this in place, your Agent Strategy Plugin can automatically perform Function Calling—for instance, retrieving the current time. Tool Invocation

5. Creating Logs

Often, multiple steps are necessary to complete a complex task in an Agent Strategy Plugin. It’s crucial for developers to track each step’s results, analyze the decision process, and optimize strategy. Using create_log_message and finish_log_message from the SDK, you can log real-time states before and after calls, aiding in quick problem diagnosis. For example:
  • Log a “starting model call” message before calling the model, clarifying the task’s execution progress.
  • Log a “call succeeded” message once the model responds, ensuring the model’s output can be traced end to end.
When the setup is complete, the workflow log will output the execution results: Agent Output execution results If multiple rounds of logs occur, you can structure them hierarchically by setting a parent parameter in your log calls, making them easier to follow. Reference method:

Sample code for agent-plugin functions

Invoke Model

The following code demonstrates how to give the Agent strategy plugin the ability to invoke the model:

6. Debugging the Plugin

After finalizing the plugin’s declaration file and implementation code, run python -m main in the plugin directory to restart it. Next, confirm the plugin runs correctly. Dify offers remote debugging—go to Plugin Management to obtain your debug key and remote server address. Back in your plugin project, copy .env.example to .env and insert the relevant remote server and debug key info.
Then run:
You’ll see the plugin installed in your Workspace, and team members can also access it. Browser Plugins

Packaging the Plugin (Optional)

Once everything works, you can package your plugin by running:
A file named google.difypkg (for example) appears in your current folder—this is your final plugin package. Congratulations! You’ve fully developed, tested, and packaged your Agent Strategy Plugin.

Publishing the Plugin (Optional)

You can now upload it to the Dify Plugins repository. Before doing so, ensure it meets the Plugin Publishing Guidelines. Once approved, your code merges into the main branch, and the plugin automatically goes live on the Dify Marketplace.

Further Exploration

Complex tasks often need multiple rounds of thinking and tool calls, typically repeating model invoke → tool use until the task ends or a maximum iteration limit is reached. Managing prompts effectively is crucial in this process. Check out the complete Function Calling implementation for a standardized approach to letting models call external tools and handle their outputs.
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