pydantic-ai-dependency-injection

PydanticAI Dependency Injection

Core Pattern

Dependencies flow through RunContext:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from pydantic_ai import Agent, RunContext

@dataclass
class Deps:
    db: DatabaseConn
    api_client: HttpClient
    user_id: int

agent = Agent(
    'openai:gpt-4o',
    deps_type=Deps,  # Type for static analysis
)

@agent.tool
async def get_user_balance(ctx: RunContext[Deps]) -> float:
    """Get the current user's account balance."""
    return await ctx.deps.db.get_balance(ctx.deps.user_id)

# At runtime, provide deps
result = await agent.run(
    'What is my balance?',
    deps=Deps(db=db_conn, api_client=client, user_id=123)
)

Defining Dependencies

Use dataclasses or Pydantic models:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from pydantic import BaseModel

# Dataclass (recommended for simplicity)
@dataclass
class Deps:
    db: DatabaseConnection
    cache: CacheClient
    user_context: UserContext

# Pydantic model (if you need validation)
class Deps(BaseModel):
    api_key: str
    endpoint: str
    timeout: int = 30

Accessing Dependencies

In tools and instructions:

@agent.tool
async def query_database(ctx: RunContext[Deps], query: str) -> list[dict]:
    """Run a database query."""
    return await ctx.deps.db.execute(query)

@agent.instructions
async def add_user_context(ctx: RunContext[Deps]) -> str:
    user = await ctx.deps.db.get_user(ctx.deps.user_id)
    return f"User name: {user.name}, Role: {user.role}"

@agent.system_prompt
def add_permissions(ctx: RunContext[Deps]) -> str:
    return f"User has permissions: {ctx.deps.permissions}"

Type Safety

Full type checking with generics:

# Explicit agent type annotation
agent: Agent[Deps, OutputModel] = Agent(
    'openai:gpt-4o',
    deps_type=Deps,
    output_type=OutputModel,
)

# Now these are type-checked:
# - ctx.deps in tools is typed as Deps
# - result.output is typed as OutputModel
# - agent.run() requires deps: Deps