Deep Agents Integration with The Grid | LangChain Setup

Use Deep Agents with The Grid through ChatOpenAI. Point to the OpenAI-compatible endpoint and set use_responses_api=False.

Deep Agents is LangChain's batteries-included agent harness. create_deep_agent() ships with planning, a filesystem, shell access, sub-agents, and context summarization on top of LangGraph. The Grid plugs in as a standard OpenAI-compatible model, but one setting matters more than anything else: you must force Chat Completions over the Responses API, or every request returns 404.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+ with deepagents installed: uv add deepagents langchain-openai.

• A Grid account at app.thegrid.ai.

• Credits in your account. The Grid is prepaid.

• A Grid consumption API key from Settings → API Keys → Create Consumption Key.

Setup

1. Set the key as an environment variable

export GRID_API_KEY="your-consumption-api-key-here"

Or add it to .env and load via python-dotenv.

2. Build a ChatOpenAI instance pointed at The Grid

This is the step that matters. Construct the model explicitly and pass the instance to create_deep_agent. Use an instrument from the current instruments list:

import os
from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI
from deepagents import create_deep_agent

model = ChatOpenAI(
    model="agent-prime",
    api_key=os.environ["GRID_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.thegrid.ai/v1",
    use_responses_api=False,
)

agent = create_deep_agent(model=model)

use_responses_api=False is mandatory. Recent langchain-openai versions default ChatOpenAI to the Responses API. The Grid serves Chat Completions only, so the default produces 404 on every call. This is the #1 failure mode.

Do NOT use create_deep_agent(model="openai:agent-prime") or any "openai:..." string. The string syntax triggers Deep Agents' OpenAI harness profile, which forces use_responses_api=True and routes through /v1/responses. Always pass a pre-built ChatOpenAI instance.

3. (Optional) Tier sub-agents by task type

Each sub-agent's model field accepts a BaseChatModel instance. Use this to put the main loop on Agent Prime and delegate cheap classification work to Text Standard:

def grid(instrument: str) -> ChatOpenAI:
    return ChatOpenAI(
        model=instrument,
        api_key=os.environ["GRID_API_KEY"],
        base_url="https://api.thegrid.ai/v1",
        use_responses_api=False,
    )

planner_sub = {
    "name": "deep-planner",
    "description": "Hard multi-step planning with long context.",
    "system_prompt": "You are a careful planner. Produce numbered, verifiable steps.",
    "model": grid("agent-max"),
}

classifier_sub = {
    "name": "fast-classifier",
    "description": "Cheap extraction and classification.",
    "system_prompt": "Classify or extract. Be terse.",
    "model": grid("text-standard"),
}

agent = create_deep_agent(
    model=grid("agent-prime"),
    subagents=[planner_sub, classifier_sub],
)

Sub-agents that omit model inherit the main agent's model. Always pass ChatOpenAI instances for sub-agents too, so use_responses_api=False stays explicit.

4. Invoke the agent

result = agent.invoke({
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Plan a small research project on AI inference pricing and draft an outline."}]
})
print(result["messages"][-1].content)

Verification

A realistic shakeout that exercises planning, filesystem, and a sub-agent:

result = agent.invoke({
    "messages": [{
        "role": "user",
        "content": (
            "1. Use write_todos to plan a research task on AI inference markets. "
            "2. Delegate topic classification to fast-classifier. "
            "3. Use deep-planner to produce a 5-step outline. "
            "4. Write the outline to outline.md."
        ),
    }]
})

If all four steps complete without 404s, your setup works end to end.

Troubleshooting

404 on every request. You forgot use_responses_api=False, or you used the "openai:..." string shortcut. Build a ChatOpenAI instance with the flag set and pass it directly.

401 Unauthorized. Confirm GRID_API_KEY is set, that it's a consumption key (not a trading key), and that base_url is exactly https://api.thegrid.ai/v1 with no trailing path.

402 Payment Required. Your credits are at zero. Top up at app.thegrid.ai, enable Auto Top Up, and wrap agent.invoke in a 402 retry. The harness itself does not retry balance errors.

import time
from openai import APIStatusError

for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        result = agent.invoke({"messages": [...]})
        break
    except APIStatusError as e:
        if e.status_code == 402:
            time.sleep(5)
            continue
        raise

JS/TS Deep Agents. The same Responses API trap applies in deepagentsjs. Use @langchain/openai's ChatOpenAI with the equivalent flag, pointed at https://api.thegrid.ai/v1.