Deep Dive into the Hedera Agent Kit: Plugins, Tools, and Practical Workflows

The Hedera Agent Kit is an open-source toolkit that brings intelligent agent workflows to the Hedera network. It’s designed for developers who want to integrate Hedera Consensus Service (HCS), Hedera Token Service (HTS), and account management into agent-driven applications, either running in human-in-the-loop (HITL) mode or fully autonomous mode. This means agents can do more than process information; they can also send tokens, manage accounts, and coordinate workflows directly on a public ledger.

In this blog, we walk through the Agent Kit architecture, highlight its plugin system, and showcase real-world examples where agents interact with Hedera services, opening the door to new possibilities for AI-driven applications on decentralized networks.

1. What is the Hedera Agent Kit?

The Hedera Agent Kit bridges the gap between AI-driven agents (such as those built with LangChain or LLM-powered assistants) and Hedera’s services. It comes with:

• Plugins: modular components that extend what your agent can do. There are two types of plugins available:

  • Hedera plugins: core, officially supported plugins maintained by the Hedera team.

  • Third-party plugins: community-built plugins that add functionality on top of the core plugins, like integrations with oracles, bridges, or DeFi applications.

• Tools: wrappers around Hedera SDK functions for tasks like HCS messaging, token operations, and account management.

• Modes of operation:

  • Human-in-the-loop: prompts require the user to sign before executing transactions. This mode is ideal for user-facing apps where security and transparency are critical. The agent proposes actions, and the human confirms them.

  • Autonomous: agents execute commands without human approval. This mode is best suited for backend agents performing repetitive tasks like monitoring HCS topics, redistributing tokens, or managing account updates.

2. Plugins and Tools Overview

At the heart of the Hedera Agent Kit is a modular plugin system. Plugins act as building blocks that give agents access to specific Hedera services, while query plugins provide read-only access to ledger data. This separation makes it easy to design secure, flexible workflows.

Here’s a breakdown of the core plugins included in the kit:

• Account Plugins

  • Core Account Plugin: tools for creating and managing Hedera accounts.

  • Core Account Query Plugin: tools for querying account-related data (balances, properties, associations).

• Consensus Service (HCS) Plugins

  • Core Consensus Plugin: tools for publishing messages and managing topics on HCS.

  • Core Consensus Query Plugin: tools for retrieving and filtering HCS messages. 

• Token Service (HTS) Plugins

  • Core Token Plugin: tools for creating and managing fungible/non-fungible tokens.

  • Core Token Query Plugin: tools for checking token information, supply, and balances.

• EVM Plugins

  • Core EVM Plugin: tools for interacting with Hedera smart contracts (ERC-20 and ERC-721).

  • Core EVM Query Plugin: tools for querying contract data and state.

• Transaction Plugins

  • Core Transactions Plugin: tools for handling Hedera transaction lifecycle operations (construction, signing, submission).

Beyond these core offerings, developers can also browse community-contributed plugins or create their own plugin. The plugin architecture is designed for extensibility, making it possible to integrate oracles, bridges, monitoring tools, or domain-specific automations into the agent workflow.

3. Example Workflows with Hedera Agent Kit

Let’s explore practical workflows for HCS, token management, and accounts. Each workflow can be executed in the Next.js Hedera Agent Chat example.

A. Consensus Messaging (HCS)

Example Chat Flow:

1. Create a new topic.

2. Submit a message “hello” to the topic.

3. Query all messages from that topic.

4. Retrieve the message sequence ID for the “hello” message.

5. Submit another message “hi”.

6. Filter messages by sequence number (>= 2).

B. Token Management

The Hedera Agent Kit simplifies token creation and transfers through a conversational flow.

Example Chat Flow:

• Create a token called Chips (CHI), supply 1000 and finite, 1 decimal, and set the treasury to my operator account

• Query details for the new token

• What is a supply key, and why is it not set? (You can ask clarifying questions)

• Query the balance of the Chips token for my treasury (operator) account

• Transfer 1 unit of the Chips token from my treasury account to 0.0.6883658

• Query the token balance of 0.0.6883658 for Chips token

C. Account Management

Agents help streamline account creation and balance tracking.

Example Chat Flow:

• Create a new account with memo: “operator account”, balance = 10 HBAR, max auto associations = 1.

• Update account 0.0.6888420 to unlimited max auto associations.

• Transfer 1 HBAR from the 0.0.6888420 account to the operator account.

• Query balances to verify both transfers.

Start Building with the Hedera Agent Kit

The Hedera Agent Kit makes it easier to bring AI-driven workflows onto the Hedera network. Whether you’re experimenting with human-in-the-loop agents or deploying fully autonomous agents, the plugin architecture gives you the flexibility to create powerful, domain-specific applications.

Ready to dive in? Explore the resources below to start building your AI agent:

• Hedera Agent Kit on GitHub

• Plugins & Tools Documentation

• Hedera AI Studio Documentation