Project Setup

This guide walks you through setting up a local development environment for AgentSchema.

Prerequisites

You’ll need the following tools installed:

Tool	Purpose	Installation
Node.js (v18+)	TypeSpec compiler & emitter	nodejs.org
.NET SDK (9.0+)	C# runtime development	dotnet.microsoft.com
Python (3.11+)	Python runtime development	python.org
uv	Python package manager	`pip install uv` or docs.astral.sh
Go (1.21+)	Go runtime development	go.dev

Clone & Install

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/AgentSchema.git
cd AgentSchema

Install emitter dependencies
Terminal window
```
cd agentschema-emitter
npm install
```
Install schema compiler dependencies
Terminal window
```
cd ../agentschema
npm install
```

Set up Python environment

cd ../runtime/python/agentschema
uv venv
uv sync --all-extras

Install TypeScript test dependencies
Terminal window
```
cd ../../typescript/agentschema
npm install
```

Project Structure

DirectoryAgentSchema/
- Directoryagentschema/ TypeSpec source (schema definitions)
  - Directorymodel/ .tsp files - THE SOURCE OF TRUTH
    main.tsp entry point
    agent.tsp agent definitions
    tools.tsp tool definitions
    …
  - tspconfig.yaml compiler configuration
- Directoryagentschema-emitter/ Code generator
  - Directorysrc/
    emitter.ts main entry point
    csharp.ts C# generator
    python.ts Python generator
    typescript.ts TypeScript generator
    Directorytemplates/ Nunjucks templates
    Directorycsharp/
    …
    Directorypython/
    …
    Directorytypescript/
    …
    Directorygo/
    …
  - Directorydist/ compiled output
    …
- Directoryruntime/ Generated libraries (DO NOT EDIT)
  - Directorycsharp/
    …
  - Directorypython/
    …
  - Directorytypescript/
    …
  - Directorygo/
    …
- Directoryschemas/ Generated JSON schemas (DO NOT EDIT)
  - …
- Directorydocs/ Documentation site
  - …

Verify Installation

Run the full build to verify everything works:

# Build the emitter
cd agentschema-emitter
npx tsc
cp -r src/templates dist/src/

# Generate all code
cd ../agentschema
npm run generate

# Run all tests
cd ../runtime/csharp && dotnet test
cd ../python/agentschema && uv run pytest tests/
cd ../../typescript/agentschema && npm test
cd ../../go/agentschema && go test ./...

All tests should pass. If you encounter issues, check:

Node.js version is 18+
.NET SDK is installed and in PATH
Python environment is activated

VS Code Setup

We recommend VS Code with these extensions:

TypeSpec for VS Code - Syntax highlighting for .tsp files
Python - Python language support
C# Dev Kit - C# development
Nunjucks - Template syntax highlighting

The repository includes .vscode/settings.json with recommended settings.

Next Steps

TypeSpec Guide - Learn to edit schema definitions
Emitter Guide - Learn to modify code generation