04: Resume and Compact

What this snippet demonstrates

Agent runs can be interrupted by timeouts, cancellations, infrastructure failures, or intentional pauses (such as waiting for human approval). When a run is interrupted, the runner persists a checkpoint containing the run’s state at the point of interruption. The resume() method picks up from that checkpoint, restoring the conversation history, tool execution records, and step counter so the agent continues where it left off rather than starting from scratch. Over time, long-running threads accumulate checkpoint records, event logs, and state entries. The compact_thread() method prunes old records according to retention policies, keeping storage bounded without losing the data needed for active runs.

Resuming an interrupted run

import asyncio
from afk.agents import Agent
from afk.core import Runner, RunnerConfig

agent = Agent(
    name="research-bot",
    model="gpt-5.5",
    instructions="You help users research topics thoroughly.",
)

runner = Runner(config=RunnerConfig(interaction_mode="headless"))


async def main():
    # Start a run that might be interrupted
    result = await runner.run(
        agent,
        user_message="Research the history of distributed systems.",
        thread_id="thread_research_001",
    )

    # Save these identifiers for later resume
    run_id = result.run_id
    thread_id = result.thread_id
    print(f"Run completed: state={result.state}")

    # Later, resume from the checkpoint if the run was interrupted.
    # The runner loads the latest checkpoint for this run_id + thread_id pair,
    # restores the conversation state, and continues execution.
    resumed_result = await runner.resume(
        agent,
        run_id=run_id,
        thread_id=thread_id,
    )
    print(f"Resumed run: state={resumed_result.state}")
    print(resumed_result.final_text)


asyncio.run(main())

How resume works internally

The runner follows this sequence when resume() is called:

Checkpoint lookup — The runner queries the memory store for the latest checkpoint matching the given run_id and thread_id. If no checkpoint exists, it raises AgentCheckpointCorruptionError.
Terminal check — If the checkpoint already contains a terminal result (the run completed before the resume was requested), the runner returns that result immediately without re-executing.
Snapshot restoration — The runner loads the runtime snapshot from the checkpoint, which includes the conversation message history, step counter, tool execution records, and any pending subagent state.
Continued execution — The runner calls run_handle() internally with the restored snapshot, continuing the step loop from where it was interrupted.

Resume method signature

await runner.resume(
    agent,               # Agent definition (must match the original run's agent)
    run_id="run_123",    # The run_id from the interrupted run
    thread_id="th_abc",  # The thread_id from the interrupted run
    context=None,        # Optional context overlay for resumed execution
)

Parameter	Type	Description
`agent`	`BaseAgent`	The agent definition used for continued execution. Must match the agent that started the original run.
`run_id`	`str`	The unique run identifier from the interrupted run. Found on `result.run_id`.
`thread_id`	`str`	The thread identifier from the interrupted run. Found on `result.thread_id`.
`context`	`dict` or `None`	Optional context overlay. Merged with the original run context.

Compacting thread memory

import asyncio
from afk.core import Runner, RunnerConfig
from afk.memory import RetentionPolicy, StateRetentionPolicy

runner = Runner(config=RunnerConfig(interaction_mode="headless"))


async def compact():
    compaction = await runner.compact_thread(
        thread_id="thread_research_001",
        event_policy=RetentionPolicy(max_age_ms=86_400_000),  # Keep last 24 hours
        state_policy=StateRetentionPolicy(max_entries=50),     # Keep last 50 state entries
    )
    print(f"Events removed: {compaction.events_removed}")
    print(f"States removed: {compaction.states_removed}")


asyncio.run(compact())

How compaction works

Compaction operates on two dimensions of stored data:

Event retention — Controlled by RetentionPolicy. Removes event records older than max_age_ms. Events are the raw telemetry log entries (LLM calls, tool executions, state transitions) that accumulate over the lifetime of a thread.
State retention — Controlled by StateRetentionPolicy. Removes state entries that exceed max_entries, keeping only the most recent ones. State entries include checkpoint snapshots, conversation summaries, and key-value metadata.

Both policies are optional. If you omit a policy, that dimension is not compacted. The method returns a MemoryCompactionResult with counts of removed records so you can log or alert on compaction activity.

When to compact

After long conversations — Threads with hundreds of turns accumulate large checkpoint histories. Compact after the conversation ends or reaches a natural break point.
On a schedule — Run compaction as a background task (e.g., hourly or daily) for threads that are still active but have grown large.
Before resume — If you know a thread has extensive history, compacting before resume reduces the data the runner needs to load.

Error handling

from afk.agents.errors import AgentCheckpointCorruptionError, AgentConfigurationError

try:
    result = await runner.resume(agent, run_id="invalid", thread_id="missing")
except AgentCheckpointCorruptionError:
    # No checkpoint found for this run_id + thread_id combination.
    # This means either the run_id is wrong, the checkpoint was compacted away,
    # or the memory store was cleared.
    print("No checkpoint found -- cannot resume.")
except AgentConfigurationError:
    # run_id or thread_id is empty or invalid
    print("Invalid run_id or thread_id.")

Runnable Snippets

04: Resume and Compact

What this snippet demonstrates

Resuming an interrupted run

How resume works internally

Resume method signature

Compacting thread memory

How compaction works

When to compact

Error handling

What to read next

​What this snippet demonstrates

​Resuming an interrupted run

​How resume works internally

​Resume method signature

​Compacting thread memory

​How compaction works

​When to compact

​Error handling

​What to read next

What this snippet demonstrates

Resuming an interrupted run

How resume works internally

Resume method signature

Compacting thread memory

How compaction works

When to compact

Error handling

What to read next