Adding LLM and AI Capabilities (Scala)

Overview

There are no Golem-specific AI libraries for Scala. To integrate with LLM providers, you have two options:

Use a third-party Scala library — but only if it is Scala.js-compatible and uses fetch under the hood (JVM-only HTTP clients will not work)
Call the provider's REST API directly using fetch or ZIO HTTP's fetch backend (recommended)

See the golem-make-http-request-scala skill for full details on making HTTP requests from Scala agents.

Option 1: Using a Third-Party Library

If you find a Scala.js-compatible LLM client library, add it with %%% in build.sbt:

libraryDependencies += "com.example" %%% "llm-client" % "1.0.0"

⚠️ Important: The library must be published for Scala.js (_sjs1_ artifact) and must use fetch or another browser-compatible HTTP mechanism. Libraries that depend on JVM networking (Apache HttpClient, OkHttp, sttp with JVM backends, etc.) will not work.

Option 2: Calling the API Directly with `fetch` (Recommended)

Since Golem Scala agents compile to JavaScript via Scala.js, the global fetch function is available. This is the most reliable approach:

import scala.scalajs.js
import scala.scalajs.js.Thenable.Implicits._
import scala.concurrent.Future
import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
 
def chatCompletion(prompt: String, apiKey: String): Future[String] = {
  val payload = js.JSON.stringify(js.Dynamic.literal(
    model = "gpt-4o",
    messages = js.Array(
      js.Dynamic.literal(role = "user", content = prompt)
    )
  ))
 
  val options = js.Dynamic.literal(
    method = "POST",
    headers = js.Dynamic.literal(
      "Content-Type" -> "application/json",
      "Authorization" -> s"Bearer $apiKey"
    ),
    body = payload
  )
 
  for {
    response <- js.Dynamic.global.fetch(
                  "https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions",
                  options
                ).asInstanceOf[js.Promise[js.Dynamic]].toFuture
    text     <- response.text().asInstanceOf[js.Promise[String]].toFuture
  } yield {
    val json = js.JSON.parse(text)
    json.choices.asInstanceOf[js.Array[js.Dynamic]](0)
      .message.content.asInstanceOf[String]
  }
}

Option 3: Using ZIO HTTP

For ZIO-based agents, use zio-http which provides a typed Scala HTTP client:

import zio._
import zio.http._
import scala.concurrent.Future
 
def chatCompletion(prompt: String, apiKey: String): Future[String] = {
  val body = Body.fromString(
    s"""{"model": "gpt-4o", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "$prompt"}]}"""
  )
 
  val effect =
    (for {
      response <- ZIO.serviceWithZIO[Client] { client =>
                    client
                      .url(URL.decode("https://api.openai.com").toOption.get)
                      .addHeader(Header.ContentType(MediaType.application.json))
                      .addHeader(Header.Authorization.Bearer(apiKey))
                      .batched
                      .post("/v1/chat/completions")(body)
                  }
      text <- response.body.asString
    } yield {
      // Parse the JSON response to extract the message content
      text
    }).provide(ZClient.default)
 
  Unsafe.unsafe { implicit u =>
    Runtime.default.unsafe.runToFuture(effect)
  }
}

Setting API Keys

Store provider API keys as secrets using Golem's typed config system. See the golem-add-secret-scala skill for full details. In brief, declare the key in your config case class:

import golem.config.{Config, Secret}
import zio.blocks.schema.Schema
 
final case class MyAgentConfig(apiKey: Secret[String])
object MyAgentConfig {
  implicit val schema: Schema[MyAgentConfig] = Schema.derived
}

Then manage it via the CLI:

golem agent-secret create apiKey --secret-type string --secret-value "sk-..."

Access in code with config.value.apiKey.get.

Complete Agent Example

import golem.runtime.annotations.{agentDefinition, agentImplementation, endpoint}
import golem.BaseAgent
import scala.scalajs.js
import scala.scalajs.js.Thenable.Implicits._
import scala.concurrent.Future
import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
 
@agentDefinition(mount = "/chats/{value}")
trait ChatAgent extends BaseAgent {
  class Id(val value: String)
 
  @endpoint(method = "POST", path = "/ask")
  def ask(question: String): Future[String]
}
 
@agentImplementation()
final class ChatAgentImpl(private val chatName: String) extends ChatAgent {
  private var messages: List[js.Dynamic] = List(
    js.Dynamic.literal(
      role = "system",
      content = s"You are a helpful assistant for chat '$chatName'"
    )
  )
 
  override def ask(question: String): Future[String] = {
    messages = messages :+ js.Dynamic.literal(role = "user", content = question)
 
    val apiKey = sys.env.getOrElse("OPENAI_API_KEY",
      throw new RuntimeException("OPENAI_API_KEY not set"))
 
    val payload = js.JSON.stringify(js.Dynamic.literal(
      model = sys.env.getOrElse("LLM_MODEL", "gpt-4o"),
      messages = js.Array(messages: _*)
    ))
 
    val options = js.Dynamic.literal(
      method = "POST",
      headers = js.Dynamic.literal(
        "Content-Type" -> "application/json",
        "Authorization" -> s"Bearer $apiKey"
      ),
      body = payload
    )
 
    for {
      response <- js.Dynamic.global.fetch(
                    "https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions",
                    options
                  ).asInstanceOf[js.Promise[js.Dynamic]].toFuture
      text     <- response.text().asInstanceOf[js.Promise[String]].toFuture
    } yield {
      val json = js.JSON.parse(text)
      val reply = json.choices.asInstanceOf[js.Array[js.Dynamic]](0)
        .message.content.asInstanceOf[String]
      messages = messages :+ js.Dynamic.literal(role = "assistant", content = reply)
      reply
    }
  }
}

Key Constraints

Golem Scala agents are compiled to JavaScript via Scala.js — only Scala.js-compatible libraries work
Third-party libraries must use fetch or another browser-compatible HTTP mechanism — JVM HTTP clients will not work
Use %%% (not %%) in build.sbt for Scala.js-compatible dependencies
Calling the REST API directly with fetch is the most reliable approach
API keys should be stored as secrets using Golem's typed config system (See the golem-add-secret-scala guide)
All HTTP requests are automatically durably persisted by Golem

Adding HTTP Endpoints to a Scala Golem Agent Adding Secrets to a Scala Golem Agent