There are many more instances of toolkit within this repo, but the goal
of this PR is to get rid of user facing references as much as possible.
---------
Co-authored-by: Nate Barbettini <nate@arcade.dev>
TLDR;
The philosophy of CLI usage is "fire and forget" and "best effort". You
can opt out by setting `ARCADE_USAGE_TRACKING=0`.
We are capturing two events: `CLI execution succeeded` and `CLI
execution failed`. Reporting to PostHog is a short lived (maximum 10
seconds) subprocess that does not block the main CLI execution process.
`~/.arcade/usage.json` persists two values `anon_id` and
`linked_principal_id`. The logged in status of the CLI user determines
which ID is used. Upon `arcade login`, the `anon_id` is aliased with
`linked_principal_id`. Upon `arcade logout` the `linked_principal_id` is
removed and the `anon_id` is rotated.
## CLI Usage Tracking - How It Works
The usage tracking system implements an identity management and event
tracking pipeline. Here's how the pieces work together:
### **Identity State Management (`usage.json`)**
The system maintains a persistent identity file at
`~/.arcade/usage.json` with this structure:
```json
{
"anon_id": "uuid",
"linked_principal_id": "uuid" | null
}
```
**Key mechanics:**
- **`anon_id`**: Generated once on first CLI use and persists across
sessions. This UUID tracks all anonymous activity.
- **`linked_principal_id`**: Initially `null`. Once the user logs in and
we successfully alias their identity, this field stores their
`principal_id` to indicate this `anon_id` has been linked.
- **Atomic writes**: All updates use a temp file + atomic rename pattern
to prevent corruption from concurrent CLI processes
- **File locking**: Uses `fcntl` (Unix) to coordinate reads/writes
across multiple simultaneous CLI invocations
- **In-memory cache**: The `UsageIdentity` class caches the loaded data
to avoid repeated file I/O within a single CLI invocation
### **Identity Resolution Flow**
When tracking an event, the system determines the `distinct_id` (who to
attribute the event to) via this waterfall:
1. **Check `linked_principal_id`** in `usage.json`
- If present → use it (user was previously aliased)
- This is the fastest path and avoids API calls
2. **Fetch `principal_id` from Arcade Cloud API**
- Makes HTTP request to `/api/v1/auth/validate` with the user's API key
from `~/.arcade/credentials.yaml`
- If authenticated → returns `principal_id`
- Has 2s timeout for responsiveness
3. **Fall back to `anon_id`**
- If not authenticated or API call fails → use anonymous ID
- Marks event with `is_anon=True` flag
### **The Aliasing Lifecycle**
PostHog aliasing links anonymous activity to authenticated users. Here's
the state machine:
#### **Stage 1: Anonymous User**
```
usage.json: { "anon_id": "abc-123", "linked_principal_id": null }
All events → sent with distinct_id="abc-123" and is_anon=True
```
#### **Stage 2: Login Event**
1. User runs `arcade login`
2. Command completes successfully (auth token saved)
3. `CommandTracker` detects successful login
4. Fetches `principal_id` from API
5. Checks `should_alias()` → returns `True` because
`linked_principal_id` is `null`
6. **Calls `alias()` synchronously** (blocking):
```python
posthog.alias(previous_id="abc-123", distinct_id="zyx-321")
```
7. Updates `usage.json`:
```json
{ "anon_id": "abc-123", "linked_principal_id": "zyx-321" }
```
8. PostHog backend merges all events with `distinct_id="abc-123"` into
the user profile for `"zyx-321"`
#### **Stage 3: Authenticated User**
```
usage.json: { "anon_id": "abc-123", "linked_principal_id": "zyx-321" }
All events → sent with distinct_id="zyx-321" and is_anon=False
```
- Events are directly attributed to the authenticated user
- No more API calls needed (uses cached `linked_principal_id`)
#### **Stage 4: Logout Event**
1. User runs `arcade logout`
2. Logout event is sent with the authenticated `distinct_id`
3. `CommandTracker` detects successful logout
4. **Rotates identity** by calling `reset_to_anonymous()`:
```json
{ "anon_id": "xyz-789", "linked_principal_id": null }
```
5. New `anon_id` prevents cross-contamination if another user logs in
### **Critical Constraint: Alias Timing**
PostHog requires that `alias()` is called **BEFORE** any events are sent
with the new `distinct_id`. This is why:
- **`alias()` is synchronous (blocking)**: Guarantees it completes
before the login success event is sent
- **Subsequent events use `linked_principal_id`**: Once aliased, all
future events use the authenticated ID
- **Lazy aliasing**: If a user authenticates via another mechanism (not
through `arcade login`), the system detects this on the next command and
performs aliasing before sending that command's event
### **Event Capture Pipeline**
When `CommandTracker.track_command_execution()` is called:
1. **Resolve identity** → determines `distinct_id` and `is_anon` flag
2. **Build event properties**:
```python
{
"command_name": "toolkit.run",
"cli_version": "1.2.3",
"python_version": "3.11.0",
"os_type": "Darwin",
"os_release": "23.4.0",
"duration": 1250.42, # milliseconds
"error_message": "..." # if failed
}
```
3. **Call `UsageService.capture()`**:
- Serializes event data to JSON
- Spawns detached subprocess: `python -m arcade_cli.usage`
- Passes data via `ARCADE_USAGE_EVENT_DATA` env var
- **Returns immediately** (non-blocking)
4. **Detached subprocess (`__main__.py`)**:
- Runs independently, survives parent CLI exit
- Deserializes event data
- If `is_anon=True`, sets `$process_person_profile=False` (tells PostHog
not to create a full profile)
- Sends event to PostHog with 5s timeout
- Exits (hard exit after 10s max via timeout thread)
### **Concurrency Handling**
Multiple CLI processes can run simultaneously. The system handles this
via:
- **File locking** on `usage.json` (shared lock for reads, exclusive for
writes)
- **Atomic writes** via temp files ensure incomplete writes never
corrupt the file
- **Idempotent aliasing**: `should_alias()` prevents redundant alias
calls
### **Edge Cases Handled**
1. **Side-channel authentication**: User authenticates outside of
`arcade login` (e.g., manually editing credentials)
- Detected via "lazy aliasing" check on every command
- Performs alias if `linked_principal_id` doesn't match current
`principal_id`
2. **API failures during identity fetch**: Falls back to anonymous
tracking
- 2s timeout prevents hanging
- Silent failure doesn't disrupt CLI
3. **PostHog merge restrictions**: Can't alias returning users who
already have a profile
- System stores `linked_principal_id` to avoid retrying impossible
aliases
- New users (never logged in before) get full history stitched
4. **Multiple accounts on same machine**: Logout rotates `anon_id`
- User A's anonymous activity won't leak into User B's profile
### **Privacy & Performance**
- **Opt-out**: `ARCADE_USAGE_TRACKING=0` disables all tracking
- **Non-blocking**: Events never slow down CLI (detached subprocess)
- **Anonymous profiles**: `$process_person_profile=False` for `anon_id`
events minimizes data collection
- **Silent failures**: Network issues or PostHog errors never surface to
users
# Release Candidate 2
## This PR:
- [x] No more confusing 307 redirect logs when using `/mcp` instead of
`/mcp/` (requested by @shubcodes)
- [x] Fix bug in `arcade configure` for Python < 3.12 (reported by
@evantahler
- [x] Fix bug where tools with unsatisfied secret requirements could
still be executed (reported by @evantahler, @shubcodes)
- [x] Auth providers can now be imported via `from
arcade_mcp_server.auth import Reddit` (requested by @shubcodes)
- [x] Add complete E2E oauth flow for tool calls with informational
errors about how to log into arcade and where to go to authorize
(requested by @evantahler, @shubcodes)
- [x] Add OAuth tool in `arcade new`'s generated server (requested by
@shubcodes)
- [x] Standardize on defaulting to running servers on port 8000
- [x] Improve credentials.yaml reading logic
- [x] CLI user friendliness (requested by @Spartee)
- [x] Remove `arcade serve` CLI command
- [x] Fix race condition in `arcade logout`
- [x] Update docs for desired developer onboarding flow
## Next PRs:
- Get `arcade deploy` working for MCP servers. (Command is hidden for
now)
- Rename all occurrences of `toolkit` to `server`/`tools` and rename all
occurrences of `worker` to `server`
### Overview
Major restructuring from monolithic `arcade-ai` package to modular
library architecture with standardized uv-based dependency management.
### New Package Structure
- **`arcade-tdk`** - Lightweight toolkit development kit (core
decorators, auth)
- **`arcade-core`** - Core execution engine and catalog functionality
- **`arcade-serve`** - FastAPI/MCP server components
- **`arcade-ai`** - Meta package that includes CLI functionality.
Optionally include evals via the `evals` extra. Optionally include all
packages via the `all` extra.
### Key Benefits
- **Lighter Dependencies**: Toolkits now depend only on `arcade-tdk` (~2
deps) vs full `arcade-ai` (~30+ deps)
- **Faster Builds**: uv provides 10-100x faster dependency resolution
and installation
- **Better Modularity**: Clear separation of concerns, consumers import
only what they need
- **Standard Tooling**: Eliminates custom poetry scripts, uses standard
Python packaging
### Migration Impact
- All 20 toolkits converted from poetry → uv with `arcade-tdk`
dependencies plus `arcade-ai[evals]` and `arcade-serve` dev
dependencies. When developing locally, devs should install toolkits via
`make install-local`.
- Modern Python 3.10+ type hints throughout
- Standardized build system with hatchling backend
- Enhanced Makefile with robust toolkit management commands
- Removed `arcade dev` CLI command
- Reduce the number of files created by `arcade new` and add an option
to not generate a tests and evals folder.
This foundation enables faster development cycles and cleaner dependency
chains for the growing toolkit ecosystem.
### Todo After this PR is merged
- [ ] Post-merge workflow(s) (release & publish containers, etc)
- [ ] Release order plan. @EricGustin suggests releasing in the
following order:
1. `arcade-core` version 0.1.0
2. `arcade-serve` version 0.1.0 and `arcade-tdk` version 0.1.0
3. `arcade-ai` version 2.0.0
4. Patch release for all toolkits (all changes in toolkits are internal
refactors)
- [ ] [Update docs](https://github.com/ArcadeAI/docs/pull/318)
---------
Co-authored-by: Eric Gustin <eric@arcade.dev>
Co-authored-by: Eric Gustin <34000337+EricGustin@users.noreply.github.com>
## PR Description
Changes `pip install 'arcade-ai[fastapi]'` to `pip install arcade-ai`.
In other words, FastAPI is now a required dependecy of arcade-ai.
Additionally, I snuck in some minor cleanup changes.
Fixes an edge case where the actor doesn't start because no toolkits are
installed in the local environment, but `arcade dev` keeps waiting for a
healthy actor.
## Problem
I found a bug with `Github.CountStargazers` where a stargazer count of
`0` was interpreted as a null result. In other words, 0 wasn't passed
back to the Engine correctly.
Separately, the tool function was also not authorized correctly.
## Fix
- Don't use a falsy comparison when evaluating `result` inside the
`ToolOutputFactory`
- Add unit tests for `ToolOutputFactory` to give us confidence in the
business logic
- Added `ToolContext` to pass in the authorization token correctly.
Before
```
User (nate@arcade-ai.com):
how many stars does the ArcadeAI/Docs repo have on github?
Assistant (gpt-4o):
I successfully checked the repository, but unfortunately, I cannot provide the number of stars for the ArcadeAI/Docs repository. Please try checking directly on GitHub for the most accurate information.
Called tool 'Github_CountStargazers'
Parameters:{"owner":"ArcadeAI","name":"Docs"}
'Github_CountStargazers' tool returned:Github.CountStargazers called successfully
```
After
```
User (nate@arcade-ai.com):
how many stars does the ArcadeAI/Docs repo have on github?
Assistant (gpt-4o):
The ArcadeAI/Docs repository on GitHub has 0 stars.
Called tool 'Github_CountStargazers'
Parameters:{"owner":"ArcadeAI","name":"Docs"}
'Github_CountStargazers' tool returned:0
This PR includes several improvements to the Arcade client and adds
LangGraph examples:
1. Enhanced error handling in the Arcade client:
- Improved HTTP error handling in `BaseArcadeClient`
- Simplified request methods in `SyncArcadeClient` and
`AsyncArcadeClient`
2. Updated `ToolResource` class:
- Changed base path from `/v1/tool` to `/v1/tools`
- Added `tool_version` parameter to `authorize` method
3. Improved Toolkit discovery:
- Updated `find_all_arcade_toolkits` to search only in the current
Python interpreter's site-packages
5. Added LangGraph examples:
- New `langgraph_auth.py` example demonstrating Gmail authentication
- New `langgraph_with_tool_exec.py` example showing tool execution
within a LangGraph
6. Minor updates:
- Changed default `BASE_URL` to `https://api.arcade.com/`
- Updated import error message for eval dependencies
---------
Co-authored-by: Nate Barbettini <nate@arcade-ai.com>
In this PR:
- Handle and require fully-qualified tool names `Toolkit.ToolName` in
the actor
Also, unrelated changes/fixes:
- Cleaned up the logic around actor secrets and `$ARCADE_ACTOR_SECRET`
- Removes experimental Flask actor for now
Note: Must be merged along with
https://github.com/ArcadeAI/Engine/pull/87
# PR Description
## Summary
Changes include renaming the `arcade_gmail` toolkit to `arcade_google`,
adding unit tests for Google toolkit, add new tools to the Google
toolkit.
## Changes
### Makefile
- Added a new `make test-toolkits` target to iterate over all toolkits
and run pytest on each one.
### Added new tools for the google toolkit
1. `send_email`
This tool sends an email using the Gmail API.
2. `write_draft_email`
This tool creates a draft email using the Gmail API.
3. `update_draft_email`
This tool updates an existing draft email using the Gmail API.
4. `send_draft_email`
This tool sends a draft email using the Gmail API.
5. `delete_draft_email`
This tool deletes a draft email using the Gmail API.
6. `list_draft_emails`
This tool retrieves a list of draft emails using the Gmail API.
7. `list_emails_by_header`
This tool searches for emails by a specific header using the Gmail API.
- `sender`: The sender's email address to search for.
- `limit`: The maximum number of emails to retrieve.
8. `list_emails`
This tool retrieves a list of emails using the Gmail API.
9. `trash_email`
This tool moves an email to the trash using the Gmail API.
* Add new tool to the arithmetic toolkit for summation of a range.
* Add ability to attach debugger to cli. Use `.vscode/launch.json`'s
"Debug arcade dev" to do so.
* Fix issue in cli's main that used the incorrect url.
