Agent Builder
An example agent demonstrating streaming, tool use, and interactivity from your terminal. This agent builder can help you to build your own agents and tools.
What is Agent Builder?
Agent Builder is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to example agent demonstrating streaming, tool use, and interactivity from your terminal. this agent builder can help you to build your own agents and tools.
An example agent demonstrating streaming, tool use, and interactivity from your terminal. This agent builder can help you to build your own agents and tools.
This server falls under the Coding Agents category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- An example agent demonstrating streaming, tool use, and inte
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx agent-builderConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Agent Builder
Strands Agent Builder is an interactive Python-based CLI toolkit from the Strands Agents project that lets developers create, test, and extend custom AI agents and tools directly from the terminal. It ships with 25+ built-in tools (shell execution, HTTP requests, Python REPL, image generation, Slack, scheduling, and more) and supports Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases for persisting tools and agent configurations across sessions. Teams use it to rapidly prototype agentic workflows with streaming output, nested sub-agents, and swarm coordination.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or later and pipx installed
- AWS account with Amazon Bedrock access if using Knowledge Bases or Bedrock-hosted models
- AWS credentials configured (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION) for Bedrock features
- An MCP-compatible client or terminal for running strands interactively
Install Strands Agent Builder
Install the strands-agents-builder package via pipx to get an isolated, globally available CLI.
pipx install strands-agents-builderLaunch the interactive agent
Run the strands command to start the interactive agent builder. It drops you into a rich terminal UI where you can describe tools and agents to build.
strandsCreate a custom tool via prompt
Pass a natural language description to build a custom tool and immediately test it. The tool will be hot-reloaded into the current session.
strands "Create a tool named sentiment_analyzer that analyzes text sentiment and test it with some examples"Configure AWS credentials for Bedrock (optional)
If you want Knowledge Base persistence or Bedrock-hosted model inference, set your AWS credentials as environment variables.
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key-id
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1Use a Knowledge Base to persist tools
Once you have a Bedrock Knowledge Base ID, pass it via --kb to load previously saved tools and agent configs.
strands --kb YOUR_KB_ID "Load my previous calculator tool and enhance it with scientific functions"Pipe specifications to build specialized agents
Pipe a spec file into strands to construct a focused agent from written requirements.
cat agent-spec.txt | strands "Build a specialized agent based on these specifications"Agent Builder Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop MCP config running the strands agent builder via the pipx-installed binary.
{
"mcpServers": {
"agent-builder": {
"command": "strands",
"args": [],
"env": {
"AWS_DEFAULT_REGION": "us-east-1"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts for the Strands Agent Builder interactive terminal.
- "Create a tool that fetches weather data for a given city using a public API"
- "Build an agent that monitors a directory for new files and summarizes their contents"
- "Create a swarm of 3 research agents to answer a complex question in parallel"
- "Show me all available built-in tools and describe what each one does"Troubleshooting Agent Builder
strands command not found after pipx install
Run `pipx ensurepath` to add the pipx bin directory to your PATH, then restart your terminal or run `source ~/.bashrc` (or equivalent for your shell).
Bedrock Knowledge Base operations fail with AccessDeniedException
Ensure your AWS IAM user or role has permissions for bedrock:InvokeModel and bedrock-agent-runtime:Retrieve. Attach the AmazonBedrockFullAccess managed policy for development environments.
cron tool unavailable on Windows
The cron, shell, and python_repl built-in tools are not available on Windows. Use Linux or macOS, or run strands inside WSL2 for full tool support.
Frequently Asked Questions about Agent Builder
What is Agent Builder?
Agent Builder is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that example agent demonstrating streaming, tool use, and interactivity from your terminal. this agent builder can help you to build your own agents and tools. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Agent Builder?
Follow the installation instructions on the Agent Builder GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Agent Builder?
Agent Builder works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Agent Builder free to use?
Yes, Agent Builder is open source and available under the Apache-2.0 license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up Agent Builder in Your Editor
Choose your AI client for step-by-step setup instructions.
Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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