Proactive Agents: Making AI self-engage in conversation

Leonardo Mariga — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 05:43:17 +0000

Large language models are reactive by default - they only respond when prompted. But what if your AI could initiate conversations, follow up on its own, and maintain engagement over time?

The Problem That Motivated This Work

Consider a typical scenario: you build a Slack bot that performs brilliantly during a demo, with users praising its human-like conversational abilities. But 24 hours later, the conversation dies because the bot never initiates follow-ups or checks back in unless explicitly prompted.

This is the core issue with large language models - they're inherently reactive. They wait for input rather than taking initiative. The challenge lies in embedding a time-based layer that gives agents temporal awareness - knowing not just what to say, but when to say it. In real-world applications, however, we need agents that can remember to follow up, initiate conversations, and maintain engagement over time.

Development teams have tried various workarounds:

Scheduled cron jobs that often result in unwanted spam
Aggressive polling that consumes excessive API resources
Complex webhook architectures that become fragile when any component fails

None of these approaches felt like the right solution. This led me to explore a different approach: what if we gave agents an internal sense of time and basic decision-making capabilities?

The ProactiveAgent Library

ProactiveAgent - is an open-source Python framework that adds time-awareness to large language models agents. It's built around a simple but effective loop:

wake → decide → respond → sleep.

Here's the conceptual flow:

The agent wakes up according to a schedule, evaluates the conversation context, determines whether a response is appropriate, and generates one if needed. It then calculates an optimal sleep duration before the next cycle. All components are designed to be interchangeable - you can swap decision engines and sleep calculators without modifying your core application.

I intentionally kept the underlying implementation straightforward. Simple, predictable code is much easier to debug during late-night troubleshooting sessions.

Core Components

Agent: The main orchestrator that manages the execution loop
Decision Engines: Components that determine response appropriateness (if it should respond now)
Sleep Calculators: Algorithms that determine optimal intervals between checks
Providers: Abstractions for different LLM APIs (including OpenAI)
Callbacks: Monitoring hooks for observing agent behavior and decisions

Building Your First Agent

Let's move from theory to practice. Here's how to create a WhatsApp-style chatbot that maintains conversations proactively.

Installation

pip install proactiveagent

Creating Your First Agent

import time
from proactiveagent import ProactiveAgent, OpenAIProvider

agent = ProactiveAgent(
    provider=OpenAIProvider(model="gpt-5-nano"),
    system_prompt="You are a casual young person which are bored and wants to talk in a WhatsApp chat. Use informal language, emojis, abbreviations, and speak like you're texting a friend. Keep responses short just a few words and conversational like real WhatsApp messages.",
    decision_config={
        'wake_up_pattern': "This is a normal whatsapp conversation, adapt your response frequency to the user's conversation.",
    },
)

agent.add_callback(lambda response: print(f"🤖 AI: {response}"))
agent.start()

print("Chat started! Type your messages:")

while True:
    message = input("You: ").strip()
    if message.lower() == 'quit': break
    agent.send_message(message)
    time.sleep(3)

agent.stop()
print("Chat ended!")

Your agent will now operate on a schedule, periodically evaluating whether to respond and maintaining natural conversation flow.

Understanding the Agent's Thought Process

Want to see what's happening inside your agent's "mind"? You can add callbacks to observe the decision-making process in real-time:

"""
Minimal callbacks example - response, sleep, and decision callbacks
"""
import time
from proactiveagent import ProactiveAgent, OpenAIProvider


def on_response(response: str):
    """Called when AI sends a response"""
    print(f"🤖 AI: {response}")


def on_sleep(sleep_time: int, reasoning: str):
    """Called when AI calculates sleep time"""
    print(f"⏰ Sleep: {sleep_time}s - {reasoning}")


def on_decision(should_respond: bool, reasoning: str):
    """Called when AI makes a decision about whether to respond"""
    status = "RESPOND" if should_respond else "WAIT"
    print(f"🧠 {status} - {reasoning}")


agent = ProactiveAgent(
    provider=OpenAIProvider(model="gpt-5-nano"),
    system_prompt="You are a casual young person which are bored and wants to talk in a WhatsApp chat. Use informal language, emojis, abbreviations, and speak like you're texting a friend. Keep responses short just a few words and conversational like real WhatsApp messages.",
    decision_config={
        'wake_up_pattern': "This is a normal whatsapp conversation, adapt your response frequency to the user's conversation.",
    },
)

agent.add_callback(on_response)
agent.add_sleep_time_callback(on_sleep)
agent.add_decision_callback(on_decision)

agent.start()

print("Chat started! Type your messages:")

while True:
    message = input("You: ").strip()
    if message.lower() == 'quit': break
    agent.send_message(message)
    time.sleep(3)

agent.stop()
print("Chat ended!")

This reveals the agent's internal reasoning - you'll see exactly why it chose to respond (or stay silent) and how it determined its sleep duration. It's like watching the agent think through its decisions.

Decision Engines

The library's real flexibility comes from its interchangeable decision engines. Here are the available approaches:

AI-based: Let the model evaluate context and decide timing (default)
Threshold: Priority-based timing with different response times for different message types
Function-based: Custom logic using Python functions (demonstrated below)

Here's how to use a function-based decision engine with custom logic:

from proactiveagent import ProactiveAgent, OpenAIProvider
from proactiveagent.decision_engines import FunctionBasedDecisionEngine

def custom_decision_function(messages, last_user_message_time, context, config, triggered_by_user_message):
    """Custom decision logic with specific timing rules"""
    import time
    current_time = time.time()
    elapsed_time = int(current_time - last_user_message_time)

    # Respond immediately to new user messages
    if triggered_by_user_message:
        return True, "User just sent a message"

    # Wait at least 60 seconds between responses
    if elapsed_time < 60:
        return False, f"Too soon - wait {60 - elapsed_time}s more"

    # Respond if we've been quiet for more than 2 minutes
    if elapsed_time > 120:
        return True, f"Been quiet for {elapsed_time}s - time to respond"

    return False, "Waiting for good timing"

provider = OpenAIProvider(model="gpt-5-nano")
decision_engine = FunctionBasedDecisionEngine(custom_decision_function)

agent = ProactiveAgent(
    provider=provider,
    decision_engine=decision_engine,
    system_prompt="You are a helpful AI assistant.",
    decision_config={
        'min_response_interval': 60,
        'max_response_interval': 300,
    }
)

AI-powered decisions work surprisingly well as the default because large language models are excellent at evaluating conversation relevance and engagement levels. They can assess whether a response would be valuable, consider the user's current context and emotional state, and determine if the timing aligns with the conversation's natural flow - judgments that are difficult to codify in simple rules. This leads to more meaningful and contextually appropriate interventions.

Sleep Calculators

Sleep calculators control the timing between agent wake cycles. By default, the agent lets the AI decide when to wake up based on context and conversation flow - this provides the most natural timing but can be less predictable in terms of cost and performance.

The library offers several approaches for when you need more control:

AI-based: Let the model decide timing based on context (default)
Static: Fixed intervals regardless of context
Pattern-based: Adjust timing based on conversation keywords
Function-based: Custom logic using Python functions

Here's a complete example using a static sleep calculator with fixed 2-minute intervals:

"""
Minimal example using StaticSleepCalculator
"""
import time
from proactiveagent import ProactiveAgent, OpenAIProvider
from proactiveagent.sleep_time_calculators import StaticSleepCalculator


def on_ai_response(response: str):
    print(f"🤖 AI: {response}")


def on_sleep_time_calculated(sleep_time: int, reasoning: str):
    print(f"⏰ Sleep: {sleep_time}s - {reasoning}")


def main():
    provider = OpenAIProvider(model="gpt-5-nano")

    # Use static sleep calculator with fixed 2-minute intervals
    sleep_calculator = StaticSleepCalculator(120, "Fixed 2-minute intervals")

    agent = ProactiveAgent(
        provider=provider,
        system_prompt="You are a helpful AI assistant.",
        decision_config={
            'min_sleep_time': 60,
            'max_sleep_time': 300,
        }
    )

    # Override the default sleep calculator
    agent.scheduler.sleep_calculator = sleep_calculator

    agent.add_callback(on_ai_response)
    agent.add_sleep_time_callback(on_sleep_time_calculated)
    agent.start()

    print("=== Static Sleep Calculator ===")
    print("Always sleeps for 2 minutes between checks.")
    print("Type 'quit' to exit.\n")

    while True:
        message = input("You: ").strip()
        if message.lower() == 'quit': break
        agent.send_message(message)
        time.sleep(1)

    agent.stop()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

The rationale for the AI-based default is that LLMs are surprisingly good at understanding conversation rhythm and context. They can detect when a conversation is heating up, cooling down, or when it's an appropriate time to check back in. But feel free to use any other you want.

Configuration Management

This example demonstrates key configuration options, though there are many more available. For comprehensive examples exploring all parameters, check the examples/configs/ directory on GitHub.

agent = ProactiveAgent(
    provider=provider,
    system_prompt="You are a helpful AI assistant.",
    decision_config={
        # Response timing parameters
        "min_response_interval": 30,
        "max_response_interval": 600,
        # Decision-making weights and thresholds
        "engagement_threshold": 0.5,
        "engagement_high_threshold": 10,
        "engagement_medium_threshold": 3,
        "context_relevance_weight": 0.4,
        "time_weight": 0.3,
        "probability_weight": 0.3,
        # Sleep calculation parameters
        "wake_up_pattern": "Check every 2-3 minutes when active",
        "min_sleep_time": 30,
        "max_sleep_time": 600,
    },
)

Key Lessons and Considerations

Advantages:

Rule-based engines (thresholds, functions) offer predictable costs and behavior
Start with longer sleep intervals when idle, then reduce timing after user engagement
Comprehensive logging helps identify unusual decision patterns early

Important Considerations:

Some might characterize this as "pseudo-proactive" since scheduled wakeups still trigger model calls. This is a fair critique, but it represents a pragmatic approach given current LLM limitations.
Token efficiency is crucial: maintain lean prompts and avoid redundant context
Model drift occurs over time - strategies that work initially may need adjustment

When to Avoid This Approach:

Purely static workloads are better served by traditional cron jobs
Long-running I/O operations typically require external orchestration systems
Applications requiring absolute reliability (models can occasionally be inconsistent)

Future Development Plans

I'm planning several enhancements:

Support for additional LLM providers (Anthropic, local models)
Improved conversation memory and persistence mechanisms

Links

Repository: leomariga/ProactiveAgent
Package: proactiveagent

Thanks for reading! The library is intentionally lightweight, but achieving reliable proactive behavior with LLMs presents interesting technical challenges. If you've encountered similar issues in your own work, I'd love to hear about your solutions.

Feel free to reach out with questions, suggestions, or just to share your experiences building proactive AI agents. Let's continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible with conversational AI!

leomariga / ProactiveAgent

Transform your AI from reactive to proactive with intelligent timing and context-aware wake-up patterns.

Time-awareness for your AI Agent

Transform your AI from reactive to proactive with intelligent timing and context-aware wake-up patterns

Quick Start • Documentation • Examples

What is ProactiveAgent?

ProactiveAgent is an open-source Python library that packs any AI agents with intelligent proactive behavior. Unlike traditional agents that only respond when prompted, ProactiveAgent creates AI agents that can respond on their own. The agents are able to:

Decide when to speak - Multi-factor decision engine determines if and when to respond
Sleep intelligently - Dynamic timing system calculates the response intervals
Understand context - Analyzes conversation flow, user engagement, and urgency
Stay flexible - Fully customizable decision engines and sleep calculators

Quick Start

Installation

pip install proactiveagent

Basic Usage

import time
from proactiveagent import ProactiveAgent, OpenAIProvider
# Create a proactive agent: Define in natural language the frequency of response
agent = ProactiveAgent(
    provider = OpenAIProvider(model=

…

View on GitHub

DEV Community: Leonardo Mariga

Proactive Agents: Making AI self-engage in conversation

The Problem That Motivated This Work

The ProactiveAgent Library

Core Components

Building Your First Agent

Installation

Creating Your First Agent

Understanding the Agent's Thought Process

Decision Engines

Sleep Calculators

Configuration Management

Key Lessons and Considerations

Advantages:

Important Considerations:

When to Avoid This Approach:

Future Development Plans

Links

leomariga / ProactiveAgent

Transform your AI from reactive to proactive with intelligent timing and context-aware wake-up patterns.

What is ProactiveAgent?

Quick Start

Installation

Basic Usage