Managed Deep Agents CLI reference

The mda CLI compiles and deploys code-first Managed Deep Agents. It is included with the managed-deepagents npm package.

Managed Deep Agents is in public beta and available on LangSmith Cloud in the US region only.

For the fastest end-to-end path, see the quickstart. For workflow guidance, see Identity, Memory, Evals, Custom tools, Custom middleware, Sandboxes, Channels, Schedules, and Deploy an agent.

Install

Install the package for the language you use to author your agent. The package exposes the mda binary. For npm, install globally or run the binary with npm exec.

npm

npm install -g managed-deepagents@dev

The package provides agent, identity, schedule, and sandbox authoring APIs.

Authentication

mda deploy reads API keys in this order:

LANGGRAPH_HOST_API_KEY
LANGSMITH_API_KEY
LANGCHAIN_API_KEY

The CLI reads those values from the project .env file first, then from the process environment. If no key is found in an interactive terminal, mda deploy prompts for a LangSmith API key and saves it to the project .env file.

.env

LANGSMITH_API_KEY=<LANGSMITH_API_KEY>
OPENAI_API_KEY=<OPENAI_API_KEY>

To deploy with an organization-scoped key, set LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID or pass --workspace-id to mda deploy. The LangSmith API key authenticates the deploy. The agent’s model provider also needs credentials at runtime. Set the provider key in .env, export it in your shell, or configure it as a LangSmith workspace secret. For example, openai:gpt-5.5 requires OPENAI_API_KEY. mda deploy forwards non-reserved .env entries, such as OPENAI_API_KEY, MCP tokens, and custom tool credentials, as hosted deployment secrets. Reserved platform variables, including LANGSMITH_API_KEY, LANGGRAPH_HOST_API_KEY, LANGCHAIN_API_KEY, and LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID, are used for CLI authentication and deploy routing but are not uploaded as user-managed deployment secrets.

Command overview

Command	Use
`mda --help`	Show CLI help.
`mda --version`	Show the installed CLI version.
`mda init <name>`	Scaffold a TypeScript Managed Deep Agents project.
`mda build [path]`	Compile a project into a managed LangGraph app without deploying.
`mda eval …` / `mda evals …`	Scaffold optional Harbor tasks and compile the agent into a Harbor handoff.
`mda dev [path]`	Compile a project and run it on the local LangGraph dev server.
`mda deploy [path]`	Compile, sync Context Hub context, upload, and deploy to LangSmith.
`mda logs [path]`	Tail Agent Server logs for a deployed agent.
`mda delete [path]` / `mda destroy [path]`	Delete a deployed agent and the LangSmith resources it created.

Initialize projects

Use mda init to create a new project directory:

mda init my-agent

Argument or flag	Use
`name`	Required project directory name. The command fails if the destination already exists.
`--instructions TEXT`	System prompt to write into `instructions.md`.
`--instructions-file PATH`	Read the system prompt for `instructions.md` from a file, or from stdin when set to `-`.
`--identity`	Add managed authentication with user-owned threads.
`--memory agent\|none`	Optionally write a root memory declaration. If omitted, no memory file is created and durable memory is off.
`--model SPEC`	Model the agent runs on, as `provider:model`.
`--no-sandbox`	Leave out the managed sandbox declaration.

The command detects the language from the current directory:

Current directory contains	Result
`package.json` only	TypeScript scaffold.
Both or neither	Interactive language prompt.

The scaffold creates:

File	Description
`agent.ts`	Named `agent` export from `defineDeepAgent(...)`.
`instructions.md`	Managed system prompt.
`package.json`	Minimal language-specific manifest.
`README.md`	Local project instructions.
`.env`	Deploy auth and runtime secrets. Do not commit real secrets.
`.gitignore`	Ignores `.env`, `.env.*`, `.mda/`, and dependency caches.

Eval tasks are opt-in and are not created by mda init. Managed Deep Agents evals are Harbor tasks under evals/tasks/. Run mda evals init <name> only when you want an optional starter task under evals/scaffold/.

Build projects

Use mda build to compile a project into a managed LangGraph app without deploying it:

mda build .

Argument or flag	Use
`path`	Project directory. Defaults to the current directory.
`--out OUT`	Output directory for the compiled app. Defaults to `<path>/.mda/build`. The directory is emptied before the build, so it must be missing, empty, or a directory a previous build wrote.

Evaluate projects

evals/tasks/ is the canonical Harbor dataset. Author complete Harbor tasks there directly. The mda eval command, also available as mda evals, can scaffold a starter task and package the managed agent for Harbor. MDA prints a harbor run command but does not run trials.

mda evals init smoke
mda evals compile .
# then run the printed `harbor run` command

Subcommand	Use
`mda evals init <name>`	Create `evals/scaffold/<name>/` with an instruction and a language-native test. Run this command from the project root.
`mda evals compile [path]`	Compile the managed agent, copy selected scaffolds into `evals/tasks/`, and write the Harbor handoff under `evals/`.

Task names passed to mda evals init can contain ASCII letters, numbers, _, and -. mda evals compile flags:

Flag	Use
`--task <name>`	Select one task. Repeat to select multiple tasks. A selected scaffold refreshes the matching task under `evals/tasks/`. If omitted, all tasks are selected and every scaffold is refreshed. Existing canonical tasks are preserved unless a selected scaffold has the same name.
`--model <provider:model>`	Record a model in the artifact manifest. Repeat to record multiple models; the generated job config uses the first value.

For Harbor task authoring, optional scaffolding, credentials, and running trials, see Evals.

Develop locally

Use mda dev to compile a project and run the local LangGraph dev server:

mda dev .

Argument or flag	Use
`path`	Project directory. Defaults to the current directory.
`--port PORT`	Forward a port to the LangGraph dev server.
`--hostname HOSTNAME`	Forward a host to the LangGraph dev server.
`--no-browser`	Prevent the dev server from opening Studio in a browser when it starts.
`--no-reload`	Disable the dev server’s hot reload.

mda dev compiles into .mda/build, then starts the language-specific LangGraph dev server from that directory:

Project language	Dev server command
TypeScript	`npx --yes @langchain/langgraph-cli dev`

When a sandbox is configured, mda dev tries the configured provider. If provider credentials are unavailable or provider creation fails, it falls back to a local temp-directory sandbox and prints the chosen path. For local development, mda dev stages the project .env file into .mda/build/.env so LangGraph can load model provider keys and other runtime credentials.

Deploy projects

Use mda deploy to compile and deploy a project to LangSmith:

mda deploy .

Argument or flag	Use
`path`	Project directory. Defaults to the current directory.
`--name NAME`	Deployment name. Defaults to the agent `name` from `defineDeepAgent`.
`--deployment-type dev\|prod`	Deployment type when creating a deployment. Defaults to `dev`.
`--workspace-id WORKSPACE_ID`	Workspace ID to deploy into. Overrides `LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID`.
`--no-wait`	Trigger the remote build and exit without polling for deployment completion.
`--configure-slack`	Generate bootstrap and deployed app manifests for the project’s single Slack channel.

Deploy runs these steps:

Validate the project directory and load the agent entry file.
Resolve the LangSmith API key and optional workspace ID.
Collect non-reserved .env values as hosted deployment secrets.
Verify the model provider API key is available from .env, the shell environment, or LangSmith workspace secrets.
Sync deploy-owned context to Context Hub.
Compile the project into .mda/build and extract optional schedules/ declarations.
Create or find a LangSmith hosted deployment by name.
Archive the build, upload it, and trigger a remote build.
Poll the revision until it reaches DEPLOYED unless --no-wait is set.
Reconcile the managed LangSmith cron jobs for schedules unless --no-wait is set.

With --configure-slack, deploy requires exactly one Slack channel and a project-root slack-app-manifest.json. When the Slack credentials are missing, it writes .mda/slack/bootstrap-manifest.json and exits before changing remote state. After you create the app and add its credentials, rerun the waited deployment to write .mda/slack/app-manifest.json with the deployed Events URL. For the complete workflow, see Slack channels. On success, the CLI prints the LangSmith deployment dashboard URL. For secrets routing and deploy tips, see Deploy an agent.

Read deployment logs

Use mda logs to tail Agent Server logs for a deployed agent:

mda logs .

Argument or flag	Use
`path`	Project directory. Defaults to the current directory.
`--name NAME`	Deployment name. Defaults to the agent `name` from the project.
`--lines LINES`	Number of recent log lines to fetch. Defaults to `1000`.
`--level LEVEL`	Only show entries at or above the given severity: `debug`, `info`, `warning`, `error`, or `critical`.
`--follow`	Keep streaming new logs. This is the default in an interactive terminal.
`--no-follow`	Print recent logs and exit. This is the default when output is piped.
`--workspace-id WORKSPACE_ID`	Workspace ID to read from. Overrides `LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID`.

Delete deployments

Use mda delete to delete a deployed Managed Deep Agent and the LangSmith resources it created. mda destroy is an alias.

mda delete .

Argument or flag	Use
`path`	Project directory. Defaults to the current directory.
`--name NAME`	Deployment name. Defaults to the agent `name` from `defineDeepAgent`.
`--workspace-id WORKSPACE_ID`	Workspace ID the deployment lives in. Overrides `LANGSMITH_WORKSPACE_ID`.
`--yes`	Delete without asking for confirmation.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause and fix
`project root ... is not a directory`	Pass a directory path to `mda dev` or `mda deploy`.
`no agent entry file found`	Add `agent.ts` or `agent.tsx` at the project root.
`No LangSmith API key found`	Set `LANGSMITH_API_KEY` or add it to the project `.env`.
Deploy fails with 401 or 403	Confirm the API key belongs to a workspace with beta access.
Deploy reports a missing model provider API key	Add the provider key, such as `OPENAI_API_KEY`, to `.env`, export it in your shell, or configure it as a LangSmith workspace secret.
Deploy reports a Context Hub conflict	The Context Hub repo changed during deploy. Re-run `mda deploy`.
The build exceeds 200 MB	Remove generated artifacts or large files from the project before deploying.
Deployment reaches `BUILD_FAILED` or `DEPLOY_FAILED`	Open the printed deployment URL in LangSmith and inspect the revision logs.

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Get started

Agent definition

Build and deploy

Managed Deep Agents CLI reference

Install

Authentication

Command overview

Initialize projects

Build projects

Evaluate projects

Develop locally

Deploy projects

Read deployment logs

Delete deployments

Troubleshooting

​Install

​Authentication

​Command overview

​Initialize projects

​Build projects

​Evaluate projects

​Develop locally

​Deploy projects

​Read deployment logs

​Delete deployments

​Troubleshooting

Install

Authentication

Command overview

Initialize projects

Build projects

Evaluate projects

Develop locally

Deploy projects

Read deployment logs

Delete deployments

Troubleshooting