openhands-tools

What it is and what it does

OpenHands Tools is a Python SDK for building AI agents that can read, write, and execute code in a workspace. It wraps an LLM with a set of built-in tools (file editor, terminal, task tracker, browser automation) and manages agent-workspace interactions, supporting both local execution and remote ephemeral environments. The package is part of the OpenHands ecosystem and serves as the foundation for the OpenHands CLI and Cloud platform.

The SDK is designed for developers who want to automate code-related tasks—from generating documentation to refactoring entire codebases—by composing agents with different tool combinations. It handles the orchestration between the LLM, the tools, and the workspace, abstracting away the complexity of agent lifecycle management. The package depends on tree-sitter for code parsing, pydantic for validation, browser-use for web automation, and several utility libraries.

Use it for:

• Generate or update project documentation (READMEs, API docs) automatically from code.
• Automate routine maintenance like dependency updates or code formatting across a repository.
• Build multi-agent workflows for large refactors or architectural rewrites.
• Integrate AI-driven code automation into CI/CD pipelines via GitHub Workflows.
• Create custom developer tools or IDE plugins powered by code-aware agents.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Provides Python and REST APIs for building AI agents that work with code, enabling tasks from one-off code generation to multi-agent refactors with local or ephemeral workspace execution.

Yes, if you need to build AI-powered code automation workflows. The package is actively maintained, has low install friction, and sits in the top 5000 PyPI packages by download volume. The main gotchas are the Python 3.12 requirement and the unclear license status—verify the license terms before using in proprietary contexts. No known security vulnerabilities as of the query date.

Install

openhands-tools on PyPI

pip install openhands-tools

uv add openhands-tools

poetry add openhands-tools

Installing openhands-tools

Before you install

Active maintenance with a recent release (2 days old) and steady repository activity. Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Requires Python 3.12 or later, which is a moderate constraint for older projects.

License in practice

License status is unclear—no SPDX identifier or raw license text is available in the package metadata. Verify the actual license before using in proprietary or restricted contexts.

Quickstart

pip install openhands-tools

from openhands.sdk import LLM, Agent, Conversation, Tool
from openhands.tools.terminal import TerminalTool

llm = LLM(api_key="your-key")
agent = Agent(llm=llm, tools=[Tool(name=TerminalTool.name)])
conversation = Conversation(agent=agent, workspace=".")
conversation.send_message("List files in current directory")
conversation.run()

Requires Python 3.12 or later. LLM API credentials must be provided at runtime.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package supports streaming or async agent execution patterns.
• Specific constraints or latency characteristics when running agents in ephemeral workspaces.
• Whether custom tools can be authored without modifying the SDK itself.
• Support for non-OpenAI LLM providers beyond documented examples.

Package facts

Evidence: openhands_tools-1.42.1-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Application Frameworks packages

Further reading