apcore Context Object: Managing Statelessness and Short‑Term Memory in Agentic Systems
Implement apcore's Context object to share state, trace, and permissions across agent modules.
Integrate apcore's Context object into your agent modules to enable shared state and tracing.
Summary
apcore’s Context object is the nervous system of its agentic pipeline, carrying state, identity, and tracing information from entry to the deepest module call. The Context exposes a trace_id that is a UUID v4 by default and can ingest W3C TraceParent headers, ensuring end‑to‑end traceability across distributed systems. It also maintains a call_chain array that grows with each nested call, providing a real‑time stack trace that can detect circular calls and enforce recursion limits. Identity data inside the Context holds the authenticated caller’s id, type, and roles, which the ACL system uses to authorize module execution. The data dictionary is reference‑shared across the call chain, allowing modules to pass artifacts sideways without bloating input parameters. apcore implements a Child Context pattern: when a module calls another, a child context is created that preserves the trace_id and data while updating the caller_id and appending to the call_chain. This pattern guarantees that all modules share the same trace and shared memory, while still knowing their immediate parent. By standardizing this state management, apcore turns isolated functions into a coherent, traceable, and secure workforce.
Key changes
- Context carries a trace_id (UUID v4) and can ingest W3C TraceParent headers for distributed tracing.
- call_chain array records execution stack, enabling circular call detection and recursion limits.
- identity property holds caller id, type, and roles for ACL authorization.
- data dictionary is reference‑shared across the call chain, allowing sideways artifact sharing.
- Child Context pattern creates a child context with same trace_id, updated caller_id, appended call_chain, and shared data.
- trace_id and data remain consistent across nested calls, ensuring trace propagation.
- Context supports automatic trace propagation via TraceParent headers from external gateways.
- Identity data is used by ACL system to enforce permissions on module calls.