Jido for Elixir

What does this agent do, and when should you use it?

Jido is an autonomous-agent framework for building workflows and multi-agent systems in Elixir. It models agents as immutable stateful structures with cmd/2; Actions do work and transform state, Signals route events into the system, and Directives describe runtime-owned external effects. Production execution uses the GenServer-based AgentServer, with supervision, parent-child lifecycle management, signal routing, instance partitions, and multi-tenant boundaries. The framework also includes Direct and FSM strategies, composable plugins, plan-based orchestration, and Pods for durable groups of agents. AI is not required by the core package; model integration is available through optional ecosystem packages such as jido_ai.

Developers define an agent with use Jido.Agent, including its name, description, schema, and signal_routes, then define work with use Jido.Action and run/2. Calling MyAgent.cmd(agent, {ActionModule, params}) executes the Action and returns an updated agent plus directives; the strategy layer applies StateOps, while the AgentServer runtime interprets directives such as Emit, SpawnAgent, Schedule, and Stop. A running server can receive a Signal through Jido.AgentServer.call(pid, Jido.Signal.new!("increment", %{amount: 10}, source: "/user")); an instance module exposes start_agent, whereis, and list_agents for process management.

1. An Elixir backend team needs to organize several long-lived, supervised business processes into a cooperative workflow.
2. A service needs to route CloudEvents-style messages into components with explicit state and command boundaries.
3. A BEAM application needs parent-child process lifecycle handling, delayed scheduling, or runtime event emission.
4. A developer wants to model a state-driven flow with the FSM strategy instead of mixing business logic into GenServer callbacks.
5. A team needs logical partitions or Pods to manage multi-tenant workspaces within a shared instance.

How do you install or deploy this agent?

Run:

mix igniter.install jido

This adds the dependency, creates MyApp.Jido, writes configuration, and adds it to the supervision tree. Alternatively, add {:jido, "~> 2.0"} to mix.exs and create:

defmodule MyApp.Jido do
use Jido, otp_app: :my_app

end

Configure config/config.exs:

config :my_app, MyApp.Jido, max_tasks: 1000, agent_pools: []

Then add MyApp.Jido to application.ex children. The documented prerequisites are Elixir 1.17+ and Erlang/OTP 26+; no credentials are documented.

How do you use this agent?

Define an Agent and an Action, for example by giving the Agent signal_routes: [{"increment", MyApp.Actions.Increment}] and returning {:ok, %{count: current + params.amount}} from the Action's run/2. Create and execute it:

agent = MyApp.CounterAgent.new()

{agent, directives} = MyApp.CounterAgent.cmd(agent, {MyApp.Actions.Increment, %{amount: 5}})

For process-based execution:

{:ok, pid} = MyApp.Jido.start_agent(MyApp.CounterAgent, id: "counter-1")
{:ok, agent} = Jido.AgentServer.call(pid, Jido.Signal.new!("increment", %{amount: 10}, source: "/user"))

The Signal type must be declared in signal_routes.

What are this agent's strengths and limitations?

How does this agent compare with similar options?

Key facts side by side with the most closely related agents.

How does FollowAgents rate this agent?

[![FARS review](https://followagents.com/badge/jido.svg)](https://followagents.com/en/agents/jido)

<a href="https://followagents.com/en/agents/jido"><img src="https://followagents.com/badge/jido.svg" alt="FARS review"></a>

Recent releases

Latest entries from the project's GitHub Releases. Notes are quoted from upstream as written, not rewritten or tested by FollowAgents.

1. v3.0.0-beta.2 Release v3.0.0-beta.2 Pre-release 2026-10-19
   Release notes excerpt

   Breaking Changes: * agent_server: remove custom process spawn callback by mikehostetler * agent: replace supplied state fields in set by mikehostetler * agent: use DSL blocks for module definitions by mikehostetler * agent: remove redundant definition getters by mikehostetler * agent: require plain map route defaults by mikehostetler * agent: require one executable per route by mikehostetler * name route Signal helpers with as by mikehostetler * use one durable Agent identity by mikehostetler * replace Agent and Topology Builders with data constructors by mikehostetler …

   View on GitHub ↗
2. v2.4.0 Release v2.4.0 2026-10-08
   Release notes excerpt

   Features: * agent: enforce optional state size budgets by mikehostetler Bug Fixes: * schema: preserve defaults with Zoi 0.18.11 by mikehostetler * deps: update mint for security advisory by mikehostetler * lifecycle: preserve normal owner shutdown reasons (#367) by Iulian Costan * error: preserve validation paths in transport (#336) by mikehostetler

   View on GitHub ↗
3. v2.3.3 Release v2.3.3 2026-08-10
   Release notes excerpt

   Bug Fixes: * deps: update Mint for CVE-2026-59249 by mikehostetler * instance-manager: fail closed on thaw errors (#316) by mikehostetler * agent-server: serialize sync call drain races (#312) by mikehostetler

   View on GitHub ↗

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