+1 on the FLIP. This is a solid step toward building an agentic offering that really leans into Flink’s strengths, and builds on the momentum from recent API improvements like FLIP-437 and the proposed FLIP-529.
Also wanted to echo the point around agent memory. More advanced agentic systems really benefit from both short-term and long-term memory. While long-term memory can live in databases (including vector stores), having a built-in abstraction for managing short-term memory would be super useful. Doesn’t need to be in the MVP, but definitely worth considering for the roadmap. Best, Mayank On Wed, May 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM Lincoln Lee <lincoln.8...@gmail.com> wrote: > +1 for the proposed flink agents sub-project! > > This aligns perfectly with flink's core strengths in real-time event > processing and stateful computations. > > Thanks for driving this initiative and looking forward to the > detailed technical designs. > > > Best, > Lincoln Lee > > > Hao Li <lihao3...@gmail.com> 于2025年5月21日周三 23:28写道： > > > Hi Xintong, Sean and Chris, > > > > Thanks for driving the initiative. Very exciting to bring AI Agent to > Flink > > to empower the streaming use cases. > > > > +1 to the FLIP. > > > > Thanks, > > Hao > > > > On Wed, May 21, 2025 at 7:35 AM Nishita Pattanayak < > > nishita.pattana...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Hi Sean, Chris and Xintong. This seems to be a very exciting > sub-project. > > > +1 for "flink-agents" sub-project. > > > > > > I was going through the FLIP , and had some questions regarding the > same: > > > 1. How would the external model calls (e.g., OpenAI or internal LLMs) > > > integrated into Flink tasks without introducing backpressure or latency > > > issues? > > > In my experience, calling an external LLM has the following > > > risks: Latency-sensitive (LLM inference can take hundreds of > milliseconds > > > to seconds), Flaky (network issues, rate limits) as well as it > > > is Non-deterministic (with timeouts, retries, etc.). It would be great > to > > > work/brainstorm on how we solve these issues. > > > 2. In traditional agent workflows, user feedback often plays a key role > > in > > > validating and improving agent outputs. In a continuous, long-running > > > Flink-based agent system, where interactions might not be user-facing > or > > > synchronous, how do we incorporate human-in-the-loop feedback or > > > correctness signals to validate and iteratively improve agent behavior? > > > > > > This is a really exciting direction for the Flink ecosystem. The idea > of > > > building long-running, context-aware agents natively on Flink feels > like > > a > > > natural evolution of stream processing. I'd love to see this mature and > > > would be excited to contribute in any way I can to help productionize > and > > > validate this in real-world use cases. > > > > > > On Wed, May 21, 2025 at 8:52 AM Xintong Song <tonysong...@gmail.com> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Hi devs, > > > > > > > > Sean, Chris and I would like to start a discussion on FLIP-531 [1], > > about > > > > introducing a new sub-project, Flink Agents. > > > > > > > > With the rise of agentic AI, we have identified great new > opportunities > > > for > > > > Flink, particularly in the system-triggered agent scenarios. We > believe > > > the > > > > future of AI agent applications is industrialized, where agents will > > not > > > > only be triggered by users, but increasingly by systems as well. > > Flink's > > > > event capabilities in real-time distributed event processing, state > > > > management and exact-once consistency fault tolerance make it > > well-suited > > > > as a framework for building such system-triggered agents. > Furthermore, > > > > system-triggered agents are often tightly coupled with data > processing. > > > > Flink's outstanding data processing capabilities allows seamless > > > > integration between data and agentic processing. These capabilities > > > > differentiate Flink from other agent frameworks with unique > advantages > > in > > > > the context of system-triggered agents. > > > > > > > > We propose this effort as a sub-project of Apache Flink, with a > > separate > > > > code repository and lightweight developing process, for rapid > iteration > > > > during the early stage. > > > > > > > > Please note that this FLIP is focused on the high-level plans, > > including > > > > motivation, positioning, goals, roadmap, and operating model of the > > > > project. Detailed technical design is out of the scope and will be > > > > discussed during the rapid prototyping and iterations. > > > > > > > > For more details, please check the FLIP [1]. Looking forward to your > > > > feedback. > > > > > > > > Best, > > > > > > > > Xintong > > > > > > > > > > > > [1] > > > > > > > > > > > > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FLINK/FLIP-531%3A+Initiate+Flink+Agents+as+a+new+Sub-Peoject > > > > > > > > > > -- *Mayank Juneja* Product Manager | Data Streaming and AI
