Skip to content

Quickstart

Get a governed agent running in a few minutes. This mirrors QUICKSTART.md in the repo.

Prerequisites

  • Docker (to run the backend stack).
  • Python 3.11+ (for the SDK).
  • An Anthropic API key — your agents run on Claude; inference is yours and the backend never sees the key. export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...

1. Start the backend

Set a database password (there's no default — the stack won't start without one), then bring it up. docker compose reads .env automatically:

echo "BOUNDFLOW_DB_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -hex 16)" > .env
docker compose -f docker-compose.dist.yml up -d

This brings up Postgres plus the three process modes off one binary — server, scheduler, and worker (see Concepts).

2. Provision an API key

The provision mode mints a tenant group and an API key:

docker compose -f docker-compose.dist.yml run --rm server -mode=provision -name=me
export BOUNDFLOW_API_KEY=<printed key>

3. Install the SDK

pip install boundflow
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<your key>

4. Run your first workflow

python -m boundflow.examples.hello

Then explore the bundled examples:

python -m boundflow.examples.approval_gate   # human-in-the-loop sign-off

What just happened

Your worker registered a workflow handler and connected to the backend over gRPC. When you invoked the workflow, the scheduler wrote a job, the worker mode dispatched it to your connected SDK worker, and your agent ran — under whatever runtime and lifecycle policies you attached. See Governance to add cost caps, model switching, and approval gates.

Operate it from the CLI

Installing the SDK also installs the boundflow CLI — the ergonomic way to manage and observe the control plane from a shell (everything the SDK does programmatically, you can do ad-hoc). It reads BOUNDFLOW_API_KEY from the env.

The run above left a workflow and a completed run behind — inspect them:

boundflow workflow list                   # your workflows and their state
boundflow workflow runs <workflow-id>     # every run, with its outcome
boundflow workflow request <request-id>   # status + outcome of one run
boundflow tenant list                     # tenants in your group

Add --json to any command for machine-readable output. See boundflow --help for the full surface — workflow create/activate/invoke, approve/reject, policies, pricing, and audit logs.