Add AI capabilities to a Rust agent

The golemcloud/golem-ai project provides provider-neutral core crates and provider crates. Golem agents now target wasm32-wasip2 and WASI HTTP 0.3, so dependency selection matters.

Select matching dependencies

Create a Rust application with golem new --yes --template rust ai-agent. Add the core and provider dependencies to the component’s Cargo.toml. This example uses the v0.5.4 source  with its matching SDK:

[dependencies]
golem-rust = { version = "=3.0.0-rc5", features = ["export_golem_agentic"] }
golem-ai-llm = { git = "https://github.com/golemcloud/golem-ai", rev = "9243c29395a4cd85f81f9c7c635d8b0e3fe49216" }
golem-ai-llm-openai = { git = "https://github.com/golemcloud/golem-ai", rev = "9243c29395a4cd85f81f9c7c635d8b0e3fe49216" }

Keep the default golem features enabled. The application and provider must use the same SDK; check cargo tree -d for duplicate SDK versions. For a local SDK build, use the source-checkout instructions below instead. Build from the application directory with golem build --yes and keep the resulting lockfile.

Configure and call OpenAI

The provider exports OpenAiHostConfig (a ConfigSchema) and OpenAiConfig (the runtime config). Inject Config<OpenAiHostConfig> through the constructor. Converting the loaded host config keeps the secret handle; the provider reveals it immediately before each request. Do not cache plaintext.

use golem_rust::{agent_definition, agent_implementation};
use golem_rust::agentic::Config as AgentConfig;
use golem_ai_llm::{LlmProvider, model::{Config, ContentPart, Event, Message, Role}};
use golem_ai_llm_openai::{OpenAI, OpenAiConfig, OpenAiHostConfig};
 
#[agent_definition]
pub trait ChatAgent {
    fn new(name: String, #[agent_config] config: AgentConfig<OpenAiHostConfig>) -> Self;
    async fn chat(&self, prompt: String, model: String) -> Result<String, String>;
}
 
struct ChatAgentImpl {
    config: AgentConfig<OpenAiHostConfig>,
}
 
#[agent_implementation]
impl ChatAgent for ChatAgentImpl {
    fn new(_name: String, #[agent_config] config: AgentConfig<OpenAiHostConfig>) -> Self {
        Self { config }
    }
 
    async fn chat(&self, prompt: String, model: String) -> Result<String, String> {
        let host = self.config.get().map_err(|_| "Provider configuration unavailable".to_string())?;
        let response = OpenAI::send(
            OpenAiConfig::from(host),
            vec![Event::Message(Message {
                role: Role::User,
                name: None,
                content: vec![ContentPart::Text(prompt)],
            })],
            Config {
                model,
                temperature: None,
                max_tokens: Some(256),
                stop_sequences: None,
                tools: None,
                tool_choice: None,
                provider_options: None,
            },
        ).await.map_err(|_| "Provider request failed".to_string())?;
        Ok(response.content.into_iter().filter_map(|part| match part {
            ContentPart::Text(text) => Some(text),
            _ => None,
        }).collect::<Vec<_>>().join(""))
    }
}

Provision the apiKey secret in the deployment environment, using the hidden prompt rather than putting a credential in the manifest or shell history:

golem secret create apiKey --type String

Set the optional provider URL config explicitly in golem.yaml:

agents:
  ChatAgent:
    config:
      base_url: "https://openai-proxy.example.com/v1"

Regular config uses the Rust field name base_url; the secret path is apiKey. Replace the example proxy URL with a reachable OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Build, deploy, and call chat with a model available to the provider account. Check the returned domain error separately from invocation failure. For streaming, use LlmProvider::stream and the upstream chat-stream interface. Before production use, verify provider requests, secret rotation, and recovery.

Authoritative API references at the pinned revision: provider config , provider implementation , request model .

Available crate families

Choose one core crate and the provider crate needed by the application:

The repository also contains golem-ai-http, the shared WASI HTTP transport. Provider crate names follow golem-ai-<capability>-<provider>.

Direct HTTP alternative

For a provider without a suitable adapter, call its HTTPS API with golem_rust::http as described by golem-make-http-request-rust. Store credentials with Golem secrets; load golem-add-secret-rust for provisioning.

Use a local SDK checkout

When targeting Golem’s development SDK, clone golemcloud/golem-ai at the revision above. In the provider workspace’s [workspace.dependencies], replace golem-rust with { path = "/absolute/path/to/golem/sdks/rust/golem-rust" }. Point the application at the same SDK and provider checkout:

[dependencies]
golem-rust = { path = "/absolute/path/to/golem/sdks/rust/golem-rust", features = ["export_golem_agentic"] }
golem-ai-llm = { path = "/absolute/path/to/golem-ai/llm/llm" }
golem-ai-llm-openai = { path = "/absolute/path/to/golem-ai/llm/openai" }

Change the provider workspace dependency directly: a crates.io patch to the development SDK’s 0.0.0 version does not satisfy the provider’s =3.0.0-rc5 requirement.