Principle:Microsoft Autogen Component Serialization
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Agent Frameworks, Serialization, Configuration Management, Protocol Design |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-11 00:00 GMT |
Overview
Serializing multi-agent system components (agents, teams, tools, models) into a portable, version-aware JSON format that can be stored, transmitted, and deserialized back into live objects.
Description
Component serialization is the process of converting in-memory agent framework objects into a self-describing, portable representation that contains everything needed to reconstruct the object in a different process, on a different machine, or at a later time. This capability is foundational for visual agent-building tools, configuration persistence, and team sharing.
The serialization protocol defines a ComponentModel data structure that captures four essential pieces of information about any component:
Provider: A fully-qualified Python class path (e.g., "autogen_agentchat.agents.AssistantAgent") that identifies which class should be used to deserialize the component. This makes the serialized format self-describing -- any runtime with access to the provider class can reconstruct the component.
Component Type: A logical category (model, agent, tool, termination, token_provider, workbench) that enables type-safe deserialization and UI categorization.
Version: An integer version number that tracks schema evolution. When a component class changes its configuration schema in a breaking way, it increments its version. The deserialization path checks the version and can invoke a migration handler for older versions.
Config: A dictionary containing all the configuration values needed to reconstruct the component. This is the output of the component's _to_config() method, validated against a Pydantic schema.
The serialization protocol is bidirectional: dump_component() converts a live object to a ComponentModel, and load_component() reconstructs a live object from a ComponentModel. This round-trip capability means that any component that participates in the protocol can be freely converted between live objects and portable JSON.
The protocol also supports metadata enrichment: each ComponentModel can carry a human-readable label and description, which are used by visual tools to present components in a user-friendly way. If not explicitly set, the label defaults to the class name and the description defaults to the class docstring.
Usage
Use component serialization when:
- You need to save agent configurations to a database or file
- You want to share team configurations between users or environments
- You are building a visual tool that needs to display and edit component configurations
- You need to version component schemas and support backward-compatible loading
- You want to transmit agent configurations over a network (e.g., API responses)
Theoretical Basis
Component serialization follows the Memento Pattern from object-oriented design, combined with a Protocol-based type system that decouples the serialization interface from the component hierarchy:
COMPONENT PROTOCOL HIERARCHY:
ComponentToConfig[ConfigT] -- Provides dump_component() and _to_config()
ComponentFromConfig[ConfigT] -- Provides _from_config() and _from_config_past_version()
ComponentSchemaType[ConfigT] -- Provides component_config_schema class var
ComponentLoader -- Provides load_component() class method
Component[ConfigT] = ComponentFromConfig + ComponentSchemaType
(concrete classes inherit this)
ComponentBase[ConfigT] = ComponentToConfig + ComponentLoader
(interface classes inherit this)
SERIALIZATION (dump_component):
1. Call _to_config() on the instance
-> Returns a Pydantic model with the component's configuration
2. Call model_dump(exclude_none=True) on the config
-> Converts to a plain dictionary
3. Determine provider string:
a. Use component_provider_override if set
b. Otherwise: "{module}.{qualname}"
c. Warn if internal module ("._") detected
d. Error if local class ("<locals>") detected
4. Construct ComponentModel:
- provider: class path string
- component_type: logical type (e.g., "agent")
- version: schema version integer
- component_version: schema version integer
- description: from class var or docstring
- label: from class var or class name
- config: the configuration dictionary
DESERIALIZATION (load_component):
1. Resolve provider string to class via importlib
2. Validate class implements the Component protocol
3. Check version compatibility:
a. If loaded version < current: call _from_config_past_version()
b. If loaded version >= current: validate config against schema,
then call _from_config()
4. Verify result type matches expected type
5. Return the reconstructed instance
The version-aware deserialization path ensures backward compatibility: when a component class evolves its schema, older serialized configurations can still be loaded through the _from_config_past_version() migration handler. This is critical for long-lived configurations stored in databases that may span multiple library versions.
The use of provider strings (fully-qualified class paths) as the serialization key means that deserialization requires the provider class to be importable in the target environment. This is a deliberate trade-off that avoids the complexity of a separate type registry while leveraging Python's module system as the natural namespace.