Conversation Tags

View source on GitHub

Stash your own key-value metadata on an OpenHands conversation — for example an external environment_url or environment_conversation_id — and read it back later from your own tooling. Conversations expose a free-form tags map for exactly this. This is the supported replacement for adding a bespoke field (e.g. a custom environment_url column) to the conversation model: use tags instead.

How It Works

OpenHands has a Cloud app server (manages accounts, sandboxes, and conversations) and, for each sandbox, an agent server (the runtime that owns the conversation). Tags live on the agent-side conversation, and their values surface on the Cloud’s AppConversation.tags field.

Step	Server	Call
Start a conversation	Cloud	`POST /api/v1/app-conversations`
Resolve agent URL + key	Cloud	`GET /api/v1/app-conversations?ids=<id>`
Write tags	Agent	`PATCH {conversation_url}` with `{"tags": {...}}`
Read tags back	Cloud	`GET /api/v1/app-conversations?ids=<id>` → `tags`

Auth uses X-Session-API-Key on both servers, but with different keys:

Cloud app server → your OH_API_KEY
Agent server → the per-conversation session_api_key returned by the Cloud

conversation_url from the Cloud is already the full agent resource URL https://<agent-host>/api/conversations/<id>, so you PATCH it directly. Consistency: the agent server is authoritative and reflects a PATCH immediately (GET {conversation_url} → tags). The Cloud’s AppConversation.tags view is eventually consistent — it typically catches up within a few seconds — so this example confirms the write on the agent server and then polls the Cloud read instead of reading once.

Why not set tags on the Cloud create call? The Cloud POST/PATCH /api/v1/app-conversations payloads do not expose tags today — the agent server is the authoritative place to write them, and the Cloud reflects the result. The agent POST /api/conversations also accepts tags at creation time if you provision the sandbox yourself (see clone-and-attach).

Tag Rules

The agent server enforces:

keys must be lowercase alphanumeric — no _ or - (use environmenturl, not environment_url; an invalid key is rejected)
values are arbitrary strings, ≤ 256 characters
PATCH replaces all tags — so this example does a read-modify-write to merge instead of clobbering existing tags

Need to store something structured or longer than 256 chars? Put a JSON string into a single tag value (within the limit), or split across multiple keys.

Run It

export OH_API_KEY=...        # your https://app.all-hands.dev API key
pip install requests

# Zero-config: starts a conversation, sets two demo tags, reads them back,
# then deletes the conversation + sandbox.
python tag_conversation.py

Sample output:

=== start conversation ===
  start-task status: STARTING_CONVERSATION
  start-task status: READY
conversation: b07894c6643c453e9091414056ba4828
  sandbox status: RUNNING
agent conversation_url: https://qplbjkyptdumixsu.prod-runtime.all-hands.dev/api/conversations/b07894c6643c453e9091414056ba4828

=== set tags (agent server) ===
  existing tags: {}
  setting tags:  {'environmenturl': 'https://env.example.com/session/abc123', 'environmentconversationid': 'ext-0001'}
  agent tags (authoritative): {'environmenturl': 'https://env.example.com/session/abc123', 'environmentconversationid': 'ext-0001'}

=== read tags back (cloud server, eventually consistent) ===
  AppConversation.tags: {'environmenturl': 'https://env.example.com/session/abc123', 'environmentconversationid': 'ext-0001'}

round-trip OK: True

=== cleanup ===
  deleted conversation b07894c6643c453e9091414056ba4828
  deleted sandbox 3NjFZz5JDyIVUdvxNsXi0R

Set Your Own Tags

Pass --tag KEY=VALUE (repeatable), and --keep to leave the conversation open so you can inspect the tags in the UI:

python tag_conversation.py \
    --tag environmenturl=https://env.example.com/abc \
    --tag environmentconversationid=ext-42 \
    --keep

Flag	Env var	Default	Purpose
`--api-key`	`OH_API_KEY`	— (required)	Cloud API key
`--base-url`	`OH_API_BASE`	`https://app.all-hands.dev`	Cloud app server
`--tag`	—	two demo tags	`KEY=VALUE`, repeatable
`--message`	`INITIAL_MESSAGE`	a hello prompt	First message to the agent
`--sandbox-id`	`SANDBOX_ID`	none	Reuse a RUNNING sandbox
`--keep`	—	off	Don’t delete the conversation/sandbox
`--poll-timeout`	`POLL_TIMEOUT`	`240`	Seconds to wait for readiness

APIs Used

Endpoint	Server	Purpose
`POST /api/v1/app-conversations`	Cloud	Start a conversation
`GET /api/v1/app-conversations/start-tasks?ids=`	Cloud	Poll for the conversation id
`GET /api/v1/app-conversations?ids=`	Cloud	Resolve `conversation_url`, `session_api_key`, read `tags`
`GET {conversation_url}`	Agent	Read current tags before merging
`PATCH {conversation_url}`	Agent	Set the (merged) tags
`DELETE /api/v1/app-conversations/{id}`	Cloud	Clean up the conversation
`DELETE /api/v1/sandboxes/{id}?sandbox_id=`	Cloud	Clean up the sandbox

Overview

Sandbox lifecycle

Conversation monitoring & reacting

Secrets & authentication

Plugins, skills & MCP

Custom agents & tools

Guardrails

View source on GitHub

How It Works

Tag Rules

Run It

Set Your Own Tags

APIs Used

View source on GitHub

​How It Works

​Tag Rules

​Run It

​Set Your Own Tags

​APIs Used

How It Works

Tag Rules

Run It

Set Your Own Tags

APIs Used