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Deep Agents is a multi-step agent runtime with deep reasoning and planning capabilities. The Docker Compose profile starts Deep Agents alongside the LiteLLM Agent Platform and registers local-deepagents automatically. This page covers the LangChain Deep Agents Compose runtime. For the Pydantic Deep Agents bridge template, see Pydantic Deep Agents.

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Prerequisites

  • Docker Desktop installed and running
  • LiteLLM Agent Platform repo cloned

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1. Start the stack

docker compose --profile deepagents up
This starts:
  • The LiteLLM Agent Platform web/API service
  • A Postgres database
  • The Deep Agents runtime harness
  • Registers local-deepagents in the UI automatically
Open http://localhost:4000 and sign in with your master key (sk-local by default).

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2. Add model provider credentials

In Settings → Credentials, add a model provider API key. Deep Agents routes all model calls through your LiteLLM gateway.

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3. Create an agent

In the UI, click New Agent, choose local-deepagents as the runtime, select a model, and set a system prompt describing the agent’s role. Or via the API: 
curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/api/agents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-local" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-deepagent",
    "owner_id": "local-user",
    "runtime": "local-deepagents",
    "model": "claude-opus-4-5",
    "system": "You are an autonomous research agent. Plan carefully before acting."
  }'

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4. Run your agent

Select your agent in the UI and start a session. Or via the API: 
# Start and run a session
SESSION=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:4000/session \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-local" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "runtime": "local-deepagents",
    "agent_id": "<agent-id>",
    "prompt": "Research the top 5 open-source vector databases and compare them on latency and scalability."
  }' | jq -r .id)

# Stream the response
curl -N "http://localhost:4000/v1/sessions/$SESSION/events/stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-local"

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Stop the stack

docker compose --profile deepagents down

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Run alongside other runtimes

docker compose --profile deepagents --profile opencode up

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CRON schedules

Deep Agents works well with scheduled runs. In the UI, open your agent, go to Schedules, and add a CRON expression: 
0 9 * * 1-5
This runs the agent every weekday at 9 AM and creates a new session automatically.