PtcRunner

Build LLM agents that write and execute programs. SubAgents combine the reasoning power of LLMs with the computational precision of a sandboxed interpreter.

Quick Start

# Conceptual example - see Getting Started guide for runnable code
{:ok, step} = PtcRunner.SubAgent.run(
  "What's the total value of orders over $100?",
  tools: %{"get_orders" => &MyApp.Orders.list/0},
  signature: "{total :float}",
  llm: my_llm
)

step.return.total  #=> 2450.00

Try it yourself: The Getting Started guide includes fully runnable examples you can copy-paste.

The SubAgent doesn't answer directly - it writes a program that computes the answer:

(->> (tool/get_orders)
     (filter #(> (:amount %) 100))
     (sum-by :amount))

This is Programmatic Tool Calling: instead of the LLM being the computer, it programs the computer.

Why PtcRunner?

LLMs as programmers, not computers. Most agent frameworks treat LLMs as the runtime. PtcRunner inverts this: LLMs generate programs that execute deterministically in a sandbox. Tool results stay in memory — the LLM explores data through code, exposing only relevant findings. This scales to thousands of items without context limits and eliminates hallucinated counts.

Best suited for: Document analysis (agentic RAG), log analysis, data aggregation, multi-source joins — any task where raw data volume would overwhelm an LLM's context window.

Key Features

• Two execution modes: PTC-Lisp for multi-turn agentic workflows with tools, or text mode for direct LLM responses with optional native tool calling
• Signatures: Type contracts ({sentiment :string, score :float}) that validate outputs and drive auto-retry on mismatch
• Context firewall: _ prefixed fields stay in BEAM memory, hidden from LLM prompts
• Transactional memory: def persists data across turns without bloating context
• Composable SubAgents: Nest agents as tools with isolated state and turn budgets
• Recursive agents (RLM): Agents call themselves via :self tools to subdivide large inputs
• Ad-hoc LLM queries: llm-query calls an LLM from within PTC-Lisp with signature-validated responses
• Observable: Telemetry spans for every turn, LLM call, and tool call with parent-child correlation. JSONL trace logs with Chrome DevTools flame chart export for debugging multi-agent flows (interactive Livebook)
• BEAM-native: Parallel tool calling (pmap/pcalls), process isolation with timeout and heap limits, fault tolerance

Examples

Parallel tool calling - fetch data concurrently:

;; LLM generates this - executes in parallel automatically
(let [[user orders stats] (pcalls #(tool/get_user {:id data/user_id})
                                   #(tool/get_orders {:id data/user_id})
                                   #(tool/get_stats {:id data/user_id}))]
  {:user user :order_count (count orders) :stats stats})

Context firewall - keep large data out of LLM prompts:

# The LLM sees: %{summary: "Found 3 urgent emails"}
# Elixir gets: %{summary: "...", _email_ids: [101, 102, 103]}
signature: "{summary :string, _email_ids [:int]}"

Ad-hoc LLM judgment from code - the LLM writes programs that call other LLMs, with typed responses and parallel execution:

;; LLM generates this - each llm-query runs in parallel via pmap
(pmap (fn [item]
        (tool/llm-query {:prompt "Rate urgency: {{desc}}"
                         :signature "{urgent :bool, reason :string}"
                         :desc (:description item)}))
      data/items)

The agent decides what to ask and how to structure the response — at runtime, from within the generated program. Enable with llm_query: true. See the LLM Agent Livebook for a full example.

Compile SubAgents - LLM writes the orchestration logic once, execute deterministically:

# Orchestrator with SubAgentTools + pure Elixir functions
{:ok, compiled} = SubAgent.compile(orchestrator, llm: my_llm)

# LLM generated: (loop [joke initial, i 1] (if (tool/check ...) (return ...) (recur ...)))

# Execute with zero orchestration cost - only child SubAgents call the LLM
compiled.execute.(%{topic: "cats"}, llm: my_llm)

See the Joke Workflow Livebook for a complete example.

Text Mode

Not every task needs PTC-Lisp. Text mode (output: :text) uses the LLM provider's native tool calling API — ideal for smaller models or straightforward tasks:

# Plain text — no signature, raw string response
{:ok, step} = SubAgent.run(
  "Summarize this article: {{text}}",
  context: %{text: article},
  output: :text,
  llm: my_llm
)
step.return  #=> "The article discusses..."

# Structured JSON — signature validates the response
{:ok, step} = SubAgent.run(
  "Classify the sentiment of: {{text}}",
  context: %{text: "I love this product!"},
  output: :text,
  signature: "() -> {sentiment :string, score :float}",
  llm: my_llm
)
step.return  #=> %{"sentiment" => "positive", "score" => 0.95}

Text mode also supports tools. Define tools as arity-1 functions that receive a map of arguments:

defmodule Calculator do
  @doc "Add two numbers"
  @spec add(%{a: integer(), b: integer()}) :: integer()
  def add(%{"a" => a, "b" => b}), do: a + b

  @doc "Multiply two numbers"
  @spec multiply(%{a: integer(), b: integer()}) :: integer()
  def multiply(%{"a" => a, "b" => b}), do: a * b
end

PtcRunner auto-extracts the @doc and @spec into tool descriptions and JSON Schema for the LLM provider's native tool calling API — just pass bare function references:

{:ok, step} = SubAgent.run(
  "What is (3 + 4) * 5?",
  output: :text,
  signature: "() -> {result :int}",
  tools: %{
    "add" => &Calculator.add/1,
    "multiply" => &Calculator.multiply/1
  },
  llm: my_llm
)
step.return["result"]  #=> 35

For full control (or anonymous functions), pass an explicit signature string instead. See the Text Mode guide for all four variants (plain text, JSON, tool+text, tool+JSON).

Signatures and JSON Schema

Signatures are compact type contracts that validate SubAgent inputs and outputs:

"(query :string, limit :int) -> {total :float, items [{id :int, name :string}]}"

Under the hood, PtcRunner converts signatures to JSON Schema in two places:

Where	When	Purpose
Tool definitions	Text mode with tools	Tool signatures → JSON Schema parameters sent to the LLM provider's native tool calling API
Structured output	Text mode with complex return type	Return signature → JSON Schema passed to the LLM callback for provider-specific structured output (e.g., OpenAI response_format)

In PTC-Lisp mode, signatures stay in their compact form — the LLM sees them in the prompt and PtcRunner validates the result directly. JSON Schema is only generated when interfacing with LLM provider APIs that require it.

Auto-extraction from @spec means you can define tools as regular Elixir functions and skip writing signatures by hand. For full control, pass an explicit signature string:

"search" => {&MyApp.search/2, signature: "(query :string, limit :int) -> [{id :int}]"}

See Signature Syntax for the full type reference.

Installation

def deps do
  [
    {:ptc_runner, "~> 0.10.0"},
    {:req_llm, "~> 1.8"}  # optional — enables built-in LLM adapter
  ]
end

With req_llm installed, create LLM callbacks with zero configuration:

llm = PtcRunner.LLM.callback("openrouter:anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5")

# or with prompt caching
llm = PtcRunner.LLM.callback("bedrock:haiku", cache: true)

PtcRunner.LLM.callback/2 routes by model prefix (openrouter:, bedrock:, anthropic:, ollama:, etc.) and handles structured output, tool calling, and prompt caching. See the LLM Setup guide for all providers, streaming, custom adapters, and framework integration.

Documentation

Guides

• Getting Started - Build your first SubAgent
• LLM Setup - Providers, streaming, custom adapters, framework integration
• Core Concepts - Context, memory, and the firewall convention
• Patterns - Chaining, orchestration, and composition
• Testing - Mocking LLMs and integration testing
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions

Reference

• Signature Syntax - Input/output type contracts
• PTC-Lisp Specification - The language SubAgents write (a Clojure subset: 211 of 534 clojure.core vars, plus clojure.string, clojure.set, and java.lang.Math)
• Function Reference - All 272 built-in functions with signatures
• Clojure Conformance - Core | String | Set | Math | Java Interop
• Benchmark Evaluation - LLM accuracy by model

Interactive

• mix ptc.repl - Interactive REPL for testing PTC-Lisp expressions
• Playground Livebook - Try PTC-Lisp interactively
• LLM Agent Livebook - Build an agent end-to-end
• Examples - Runnable example applications including Wire Transfer (human-in-the-loop workflow)
• Blog - Articles and updates

Trace Viewer

A built-in web UI for browsing execution traces with turn-by-turn drill-down:

mix ptc.viewer --trace-dir traces

See Observability Guide for details.

Low-Level API

For direct program execution without the agentic loop:

{:ok, step} = PtcRunner.Lisp.run(
  "(->> data/items (filter :active) (count))",
  context: %{items: items}
)
step.return  #=> 3

Programs run in isolated BEAM processes with resource limits (1s timeout, 10MB heap).

See PtcRunner.Lisp module docs for options.

License

MIT