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CLI vs programmatic AEAs

The AEA framework enables us to create agents either from the CLI tool or programmatically.

The following demo demonstrates an interaction between two AEAs.

The provider of weather data (managed with the CLI). The buyer of weather data (managed programmatically).

Discussion

The scope of the specific demo is to demonstrate how a CLI based AEA can interact with a programmatically managed AEA. In order to achieve this we are going to use the weather station skills. This demo does not utilize a smart contract or a ledger interaction.

Get required packages

Copy the packages directory into your local working directory:

svn export https://github.com/fetchai/agents-aea.git/trunk/packages

Also, install aea-ledger-fetchai plug-in: 

pip install aea-ledger-fetchai

Demo instructions

If you want to create the weather station AEA step by step you can follow this guide here

Create the weather station AEA

Fetch the weather station AEA with the following command :

aea fetch fetchai/weather_station:0.32.0
cd weather_station
aea install
aea build

Update the AEA configurations

In the terminal change the configuration: 

aea config set vendor.fetchai.skills.weather_station.models.strategy.args.is_ledger_tx False --type bool
The is_ledger_tx will prevent the AEA to communicate with a ledger.

Add keys

Add a private key for the weather station. 

aea generate-key fetchai
aea add-key fetchai fetchai_private_key.txt

Next, create a private key used to secure the AEA's communications: 

aea generate-key fetchai fetchai_connection_private_key.txt
aea add-key fetchai fetchai_connection_private_key.txt --connection

Finally, certify the key for use by the connections that request that: 

aea issue-certificates

Run the weather station AEA

aea run

Once you see a message of the form To join its network use multiaddr: ['SOME_ADDRESS'] take note of the address.

Create the weather client AEA

Since we want to show the interaction between a programmatically created AEA with a CLI based AEA we are going to write some code for the client.

Create a new python file and name it weather_client.py and add the following code

Weather client full code. 
import logging
import os
import sys
from typing import cast

from aea_ledger_fetchai import FetchAICrypto

from aea.aea import AEA
from aea.aea_builder import AEABuilder
from aea.configurations.base import ConnectionConfig
from aea.crypto.helpers import (
    PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_SCHEMA,
    create_private_key,
    make_certificate,
)
from aea.crypto.wallet import Wallet
from aea.helpers.base import CertRequest
from aea.identity.base import Identity
from aea.protocols.base import Protocol
from aea.registries.resources import Resources
from aea.skills.base import Skill

import packages.fetchai.connections.p2p_libp2p.connection
from packages.fetchai.connections.ledger.connection import LedgerConnection
from packages.fetchai.connections.p2p_libp2p.connection import P2PLibp2pConnection
from packages.fetchai.connections.soef.connection import SOEFConnection
from packages.fetchai.protocols.ledger_api.message import LedgerApiMessage
from packages.fetchai.protocols.oef_search.message import OefSearchMessage
from packages.fetchai.skills.weather_client.strategy import Strategy


API_KEY = "TwiCIriSl0mLahw17pyqoA"
SOEF_ADDR = "s-oef.fetch.ai"
SOEF_PORT = 443
ENTRY_PEER_ADDRESS = (
    "/dns4/127.0.0.1/tcp/9000/p2p/16Uiu2HAmLBCAqHL8SuFosyDhAKYsLKXBZBWXBsB9oFw2qU4Kckun"
)
FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE = PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_SCHEMA.format(FetchAICrypto.identifier)
FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_CONNECTION = PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_SCHEMA.format(
    "fetchai_connection"
)
ROOT_DIR = os.getcwd()

logger = logging.getLogger("aea")
logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stdout, level=logging.INFO)


def run():
    """Run demo."""

    # Create a private key
    create_private_key(FetchAICrypto.identifier, FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE)
    create_private_key(FetchAICrypto.identifier, FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_CONNECTION)

    # Set up the wallet, identity and (empty) resources
    wallet = Wallet(
        private_key_paths={FetchAICrypto.identifier: FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE},
        connection_private_key_paths={
            FetchAICrypto.identifier: FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_CONNECTION
        },
    )
    identity = Identity(
        "my_aea",
        address=wallet.addresses.get(FetchAICrypto.identifier),
        public_key=wallet.public_keys.get(FetchAICrypto.identifier),
    )
    resources = Resources()
    data_dir = os.getcwd()

    # specify the default routing for some protocols
    default_routing = {
        LedgerApiMessage.protocol_id: LedgerConnection.connection_id,
        OefSearchMessage.protocol_id: SOEFConnection.connection_id,
    }
    default_connection = P2PLibp2pConnection.connection_id

    state_update_protocol = Protocol.from_dir(
        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "packages", "fetchai", "protocols", "state_update")
    )
    resources.add_protocol(state_update_protocol)

    # Add the default protocol (which is part of the AEA distribution)
    default_protocol = Protocol.from_dir(
        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "packages", "fetchai", "protocols", "default")
    )
    resources.add_protocol(default_protocol)

    # Add the signing protocol (which is part of the AEA distribution)
    signing_protocol = Protocol.from_dir(
        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "packages", "fetchai", "protocols", "signing")
    )
    resources.add_protocol(signing_protocol)

    # Add the ledger_api protocol
    ledger_api_protocol = Protocol.from_dir(
        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "packages", "fetchai", "protocols", "ledger_api",)
    )
    resources.add_protocol(ledger_api_protocol)

    # Add the oef_search protocol
    oef_protocol = Protocol.from_dir(
        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "packages", "fetchai", "protocols", "oef_search",)
    )
    resources.add_protocol(oef_protocol)

    # Add the fipa protocol
    fipa_protocol = Protocol.from_dir(
        os.path.join(os.getcwd(), "packages", "fetchai", "protocols", "fipa",)
    )
    resources.add_protocol(fipa_protocol)

    # Add the LedgerAPI connection
    configuration = ConnectionConfig(connection_id=LedgerConnection.connection_id)
    ledger_api_connection = LedgerConnection(
        configuration=configuration, data_dir=data_dir, identity=identity
    )
    resources.add_connection(ledger_api_connection)

    # Add the P2P connection
    cert_path = ".certs/conn_cert.txt"
    cert_request = CertRequest(
        identifier="acn",
        ledger_id=FetchAICrypto.identifier,
        not_after="2022-01-01",
        not_before="2021-01-01",
        public_key="fetchai",
        message_format="{public_key}",
        save_path=cert_path,
    )
    public_key = wallet.connection_cryptos.public_keys.get(FetchAICrypto.identifier)
    message = cert_request.get_message(public_key)
    make_certificate(
        FetchAICrypto.identifier, FETCHAI_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE, message, cert_path
    )
    configuration = ConnectionConfig(
        connection_id=P2PLibp2pConnection.connection_id,
        delegate_uri="127.0.0.1:11001",
        entry_peers=[ENTRY_PEER_ADDRESS],
        local_uri="127.0.0.1:9001",
        log_file="libp2p_node.log",
        public_uri="127.0.0.1:9001",
        build_directory=os.getcwd(),
        build_entrypoint="check_dependencies.py",
        cert_requests=[cert_request],
    )
    configuration.directory = os.path.dirname(
        packages.fetchai.connections.p2p_libp2p.connection.__file__
    )

    AEABuilder.run_build_for_component_configuration(configuration)

    p2p_connection = P2PLibp2pConnection(
        configuration=configuration,
        data_dir=data_dir,
        identity=identity,
        crypto_store=wallet.connection_cryptos,
    )
    resources.add_connection(p2p_connection)

    # Add the SOEF connection
    configuration = ConnectionConfig(
        api_key=API_KEY,
        soef_addr=SOEF_ADDR,
        soef_port=SOEF_PORT,
        restricted_to_protocols={OefSearchMessage.protocol_id},
        connection_id=SOEFConnection.connection_id,
    )
    soef_connection = SOEFConnection(
        configuration=configuration, data_dir=data_dir, identity=identity
    )
    resources.add_connection(soef_connection)

    # create the AEA
    my_aea = AEA(
        identity,
        wallet,
        resources,
        data_dir,
        default_connection=default_connection,
        default_routing=default_routing,
    )
    # Add the error and weather_client skills
    error_skill = Skill.from_dir(
        os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, "packages", "fetchai", "skills", "error"),
        agent_context=my_aea.context,
    )
    weather_skill = Skill.from_dir(
        os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, "packages", "fetchai", "skills", "weather_client"),
        agent_context=my_aea.context,
    )

    strategy = cast(Strategy, weather_skill.models.get("strategy"))
    strategy._is_ledger_tx = False

    for skill in [error_skill, weather_skill]:
        resources.add_skill(skill)

    # Run the AEA
    try:
        logger.info("STARTING AEA NOW!")
        my_aea.start()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        logger.info("STOPPING AEA NOW!")
        my_aea.stop()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    run()

Now replace ENTRY_PEER_ADDRESS with the peer address (SOME_ADDRESS) noted above.

For more details on how to create an agent programmatically follow this guide here.

Run the weather station AEA

In a new terminal window, navigate to the folder that you created the script and run: 

python weather_client.py

You should see both AEAs interacting now.

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