Files
langgraph/libs/checkpoint
Sydney Runkle 31ef0e942a refactor(delta-channel): drop snapshot_every and saver Overwrite terminator
snapshot_every was a knob for bounding reconstruction cost on deep threads.
Benchmarks (notes/add_messages_replay_problem.md + scratch work on
sr/add-messages-replay-bench) showed the add_messages fast-path
(optimize/add-messages-fast-path) closes the quadratic replay cost for
threads under ~1000 turns, where the crossover to snapshots makes sense.
For deeper threads we'll ship a first-class compaction primitive instead.

Removals:

* DeltaChannel: snapshot_every ctor param, _writes_since_snapshot counter,
  should_snapshot() / snapshot_write() methods, counter threading through
  _apply_write / update / from_checkpoint / copy.
* Pregel loop: post-checkpoint snapshot-injection block and
  SNAPSHOT_TASK_ID import + constant.
* Checkpoint base: _overwrite_types() helper and the ancestor-walk
  short-circuit on user-emitted Overwrite in sync + async
  get_channel_writes.
* InMemory + Postgres savers: same walk-terminator shortcut. The
  pre-delta blob terminator (seed-from-ancestor-blob) stays — it's
  required for migration correctness, not a snapshot optimization.
* Tests for all of the above.

Preserved:

* Channel-level Overwrite semantics in DeltaChannel / BinOpAggregate:
  Overwrite still resets the value at reducer level; same-super-step
  dedup and InvalidUpdateError on multiple Overwrites still enforced.
* Pre-delta migration seeding.
2026-04-23 09:54:12 -04:00
..
2026-02-26 12:01:58 -08:00

LangGraph Checkpoint

This library defines the base interface for LangGraph checkpointers. Checkpointers provide a persistence layer for LangGraph. They allow you to interact with and manage the graph's state. When you use a graph with a checkpointer, the checkpointer saves a checkpoint of the graph state at every superstep, enabling several powerful capabilities like human-in-the-loop, "memory" between interactions and more.

Key concepts

Checkpoint

Checkpoint is a snapshot of the graph state at a given point in time. Checkpoint tuple refers to an object containing checkpoint and the associated config, metadata and pending writes.

Thread

Threads enable the checkpointing of multiple different runs, making them essential for multi-tenant chat applications and other scenarios where maintaining separate states is necessary. A thread is a unique ID assigned to a series of checkpoints saved by a checkpointer. When using a checkpointer, you must specify a thread_id and optionally checkpoint_id when running the graph.

  • thread_id is simply the ID of a thread. This is always required.
  • checkpoint_id can optionally be passed. This identifier refers to a specific checkpoint within a thread. This can be used to kick off a run of a graph from some point halfway through a thread.

You must pass these when invoking the graph as part of the configurable part of the config, e.g.

{"configurable": {"thread_id": "1"}}  # valid config
{"configurable": {"thread_id": "1", "checkpoint_id": "0c62ca34-ac19-445d-bbb0-5b4984975b2a"}}  # also valid config

Serde

langgraph_checkpoint also defines protocol for serialization/deserialization (serde) and provides an default implementation (langgraph.checkpoint.serde.jsonplus.JsonPlusSerializer) that handles a wide variety of types, including LangChain and LangGraph primitives, datetimes, enums and more.

Important

Checkpoint deserialization security: By default the serializer allows any Python type found in checkpoint data. New applications should set the environment variable LANGGRAPH_STRICT_MSGPACK=true or pass an explicit allowed_msgpack_modules list to JsonPlusSerializer to restrict deserialization to known-safe types.

Pending writes

When a graph node fails mid-execution at a given superstep, LangGraph stores pending checkpoint writes from any other nodes that completed successfully at that superstep, so that whenever we resume graph execution from that superstep we don't re-run the successful nodes.

Interface

Each checkpointer should conform to langgraph.checkpoint.base.BaseCheckpointSaver interface and must implement the following methods:

  • .put - Store a checkpoint with its configuration and metadata.
  • .put_writes - Store intermediate writes linked to a checkpoint (i.e. pending writes).
  • .get_tuple - Fetch a checkpoint tuple using for a given configuration (thread_id and checkpoint_id).
  • .list - List checkpoints that match a given configuration and filter criteria.
  • .delete_thread() - Delete all checkpoints and writes associated with a thread.
  • .get_next_version() - Generate the next version ID for a channel.

If the checkpointer will be used with asynchronous graph execution (i.e. executing the graph via .ainvoke, .astream, .abatch), checkpointer must implement asynchronous versions of the above methods (.aput, .aput_writes, .aget_tuple, .alist). Similarly, the checkpointer must implement .adelete_thread() if asynchronous thread cleanup is desired. The base class provides a default implementation of .get_next_version() that generates an integer sequence starting from 1, but this method should be overridden for custom versioning schemes.

Usage

from langgraph.checkpoint.memory import InMemorySaver

write_config = {"configurable": {"thread_id": "1", "checkpoint_ns": ""}}
read_config = {"configurable": {"thread_id": "1"}}

checkpointer = InMemorySaver()
checkpoint = {
    "v": 4,
    "ts": "2024-07-31T20:14:19.804150+00:00",
    "id": "1ef4f797-8335-6428-8001-8a1503f9b875",
    "channel_values": {
      "my_key": "meow",
      "node": "node"
    },
    "channel_versions": {
      "__start__": 2,
      "my_key": 3,
      "start:node": 3,
      "node": 3
    },
    "versions_seen": {
      "__input__": {},
      "__start__": {
        "__start__": 1
      },
      "node": {
        "start:node": 2
      }
    },
}

# store checkpoint
checkpointer.put(write_config, checkpoint, {}, {})

# load checkpoint
checkpointer.get(read_config)

# list checkpoints
list(checkpointer.list(read_config))