create_deep_agent has the following core configuration options:
- Model
- Tools
- System Prompt
- Middleware
- Subagents
- Backends (virtual filesystems)
- Human-in-the-loop
- Skills
- Memory
create_deep_agent.
Model
By default,deepagents uses claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929. You can customize the model by passing any supported or LangChain model object.
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Azure
- Google Gemini
- AWS Bedrock
- HuggingFace
Tools
In addition to built-in tools for planning, file management, and subagent spawning, you can provide custom tools:System prompt
Deep agents come with a built-in system prompt. The default system prompt contains detailed instructions for using the built-in planning tool, file system tools, and subagents. When middleware add special tools, like the filesystem tools, it appends them to the system prompt. Each deep agent should include a custom system prompt specific to its specific use case.Middleware
Middleware provides a way to more tightly control what happens inside an agent. You can provide additional middleware to extend functionality, add tools, or implement custom hooks:Subagents
To isolate detailed work and avoid context bloat, use subagents:Backends
You can provide your deep agent with one of the following virtual filesystems:- StateBackend
- FilesystemBackend
- StoreBackend
- CompositeBackend
An ephemeral filesystem backend stored in
langgraph state.
This filesystem only persists for a single thread.Human-in-the-loop
Some tool operations may be sensitive and require human approval before execution. You can configure the approval for each tool:Skills
You can use skills to provide your deep agent with new capabilities and expertise. While tools tend to cover lower level functionality like native file system actions or planning, skills can contain detailed instructions on how to complete tasks, reference info, and other assets, such as templates. These files are only loaded by the agent when the agent has determined that the skill is useful for the current prompt. This progressive disclosure reduces the amount of tokens and context the agent has to consider upon startup. For example skills, see Deep Agent example skills. To add skills to your deep agent, pass them as an argument tocreate_deep_agent:
- StateBackend
- StoreBackend
- FilesystemBackend
Memory
UseAGENTS.md files to provide extra context to your deep agent.
You can pass one or more file paths to the memory parameter when creating your deep agent:
- StateBackend
- StoreBackend
- FilesystemBackend
Structured ouput
Deep agents support structured ouput. You can set a desired structured output schema by passing it as theresponse_format argument to the call to create_deep_agent().
When the model generates the structured data, it’s captured, validated, and returned in the ‘structured_response’ key of the deep agent’s state.