Installation

Installation

Summary: Install the SignalWire Agents SDK using pip and verify everything works correctly.

System Requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
Python	3.8+	3.10+
pip	20.0+	Latest
OS	Linux, macOS, Windows	Any
Memory	512MB	1GB+

Basic Installation

Install the SDK from PyPI:

pip install signalwire-agents

This installs the core SDK with all essential features for building voice AI agents.

Verify Installation

Confirm the installation was successful:

python -c "from signalwire_agents import AgentBase; print('SignalWire Agents SDK installed successfully!')"

You should see:

SignalWire Agents SDK installed successfully!

Installation Extras

The SDK provides optional extras for additional features:

Search Capabilities

## Query-only (read .swsearch files) - ~400MB
pip install signalwire-agents[search-queryonly]

## Build indexes + vector search - ~500MB
pip install signalwire-agents[search]

## Full document processing (PDF, DOCX) - ~600MB
pip install signalwire-agents[search-full]

## NLP features (spaCy) - ~600MB
pip install signalwire-agents[search-nlp]

## All search features - ~700MB
pip install signalwire-agents[search-all]

Database Support

## PostgreSQL vector database support
pip install signalwire-agents[pgvector]

Development Dependencies

## All development tools (testing, linting)
pip install signalwire-agents[dev]

Installation from Source

For development or to get the latest changes:

## Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/signalwire/signalwire-agents.git
cd signalwire-agents

## Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

## Install in development mode
pip install -e .

## Or with extras
pip install -e ".[search,dev]"

Virtual Environment Setup

Always use a virtual environment to avoid conflicts:

## Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv

## Activate (Linux/macOS)
source venv/bin/activate

## Activate (Windows Command Prompt)
venv\Scripts\activate

## Activate (Windows PowerShell)
venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

## Install the SDK
pip install signalwire-agents

## Verify activation (should show venv path)
which python

Quick Verification Script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
## verify_install.py - Verify SignalWire Agents SDK installation
"""Verify SignalWire Agents SDK installation."""

def main():
    print("Checking SignalWire Agents SDK installation...\n")

    # Check core import
    try:
        from signalwire_agents import AgentBase
        print("[OK] Core SDK: AgentBase imported successfully")
    except ImportError as e:
        print(f"[FAIL] Core SDK: Failed to import AgentBase - {e}")
        return False

    # Check SWAIG function support
    try:
        from signalwire_agents import SwaigFunctionResult
        print("[OK] SWAIG: SwaigFunctionResult imported successfully")
    except ImportError as e:
        print(f"[FAIL] SWAIG: Failed to import SwaigFunctionResult - {e}")
        return False

    # Check prefabs
    try:
        from signalwire_agents.prefabs import InfoGathererAgent
        print("[OK] Prefabs: InfoGathererAgent imported successfully")
    except ImportError as e:
        print(f"[FAIL] Prefabs: Failed to import - {e}")

    # Check search (optional)
    try:
        from signalwire_agents.search import SearchEngine
        print("[OK] Search: SearchEngine available")
    except ImportError:
        print("[SKIP] Search: Not installed (optional)")

    print("\n" + "="*50)
    print("Installation verification complete!")
    print("="*50)
    return True


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Run it:

python verify_install.py

Expected output:

Checking SignalWire Agents SDK installation...

[OK] Core SDK: AgentBase imported successfully
[OK] SWAIG: SwaigFunctionResult imported successfully
[OK] Prefabs: InfoGathererAgent imported successfully
[SKIP] Search: Not installed (optional)

==================================================
Installation verification complete!
==================================================

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Problem	Cause	Solution
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'signalwire_agents'	Package not installed	Run pip install signalwire-agents
pip: command not found	pip not in PATH	Use python -m pip install signalwire-agents
Permission errors	Installing globally without sudo	Use virtual environment or pip install --user
Old pip version	pip can't resolve dependencies	Run pip install --upgrade pip
Conflicts with other packages	Dependency version mismatch	Use a fresh virtual environment

Python Version Check

Ensure you have Python 3.8+:

python --version
## or
python3 --version

If you have multiple Python versions:

## Use specific version
python3.10 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install signalwire-agents

Upgrade Existing Installation

pip install --upgrade signalwire-agents

Clean Reinstall

pip uninstall signalwire-agents
pip cache purge
pip install signalwire-agents

CLI Tools

The SDK includes command-line tools:

Tool	Purpose
swaig-test	Test agents and functions locally
sw-search	Build and query search indexes
sw-agent-init	Create new agent projects

Verify CLI tools are available:

swaig-test --help
sw-agent-init --help

What Gets Installed

The SDK installs these core dependencies:

Package	Purpose
fastapi	Web framework for serving SWML
uvicorn	ASGI server for running the agent
pydantic	Data validation and settings
structlog	Structured logging
httpx	HTTP client for API calls

Next Steps

Now that the SDK is installed, let's create your first agent.