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This example demonstrates how to create an agent with basic session state management, maintaining a shopping list across interactions using SQLite storage.
1

Create a Python file

Create a file session_state_basic.py
2

Add code to file

session_state_basic.py
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.db.sqlite import SqliteDb
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIChat


def add_item(session_state, item: str) -> str:
    """Add an item to the shopping list."""
    session_state["shopping_list"].append(item)  # type: ignore
    return f"The shopping list is now {session_state['shopping_list']}"  # type: ignore


# Create an Agent that maintains state
agent = Agent(
    model=OpenAIChat(id="gpt-5-mini"),
    # Initialize the session state with a counter starting at 0 (this is the default session state for all users)
    session_state={"shopping_list": []},
    db=SqliteDb(db_file="tmp/agents.db"),
    tools=[add_item],
    # You can use variables from the session state in the instructions
    instructions="Current state (shopping list) is: {shopping_list}",
    markdown=True,
)

# Example usage
agent.print_response("Add milk, eggs, and bread to the shopping list", stream=True)
print(f"Final session state: {agent.get_session_state()}")
3

Create a virtual environment

Open the Terminal and create a python virtual environment.
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
4

Install libraries

pip install -U agno openai
5

Set OpenAI Key

​
Set OpenAI Key

Set your OPENAI_API_KEY as an environment variable. You can get one from OpenAI.
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-***
6

Run the agent

python session_state_basic.py
7

Find All Cookbooks

Explore all the available cookbooks in the Agno repository. Click the link below to view the code on GitHub:Agno Cookbooks on GitHub