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langgraph/libs/checkpoint
5c18bde0f8 feat(langgraph): DeltaChannel: store sentinel in blobs, reconstruct from checkpoint_writes (#7586)
# DeltaChannel: sentinel-based checkpoint blobs + write-replay
reconstruction

## Summary

`DeltaChannel` is a new fold-reducer channel that stores only a
zero-byte sentinel in checkpoint blobs instead of the full accumulated
value. On restore, the runtime replays ancestor writes through the
reducer to reconstruct state. For long-running threads with large
accumulating state (e.g. message histories), this delivers dramatically
smaller checkpoint blobs with configurable read-depth bounds.

```python
from typing import Annotated
from typing_extensions import TypedDict
from langgraph.channels.delta import DeltaChannel
from langgraph.graph.message import _messages_delta_reducer

class State(TypedDict):
    # blob per step: ~60 bytes (sentinel) instead of growing full list
    messages: Annotated[list, DeltaChannel(_messages_delta_reducer)]
    # bound read depth to 10 steps via periodic snapshots
    messages_bounded: Annotated[list, DeltaChannel(_messages_delta_reducer, snapshot_frequency=10)]
```

---

## Storage benchmarks (InMemory, ~400 char/msg)

**Messages blob storage** (`checkpoint_blobs` bytes for the messages
channel):

| turns | add\_messages | delta(inf) | delta(freq=50) | delta(freq=10) |
delta(freq=5) |

|------:|-------------:|-----------:|---------------:|---------------:|--------------:|
| 10 | 91.0 KB | 60 B (1517x) | 60 B (1517x) | 14.4 KB (6x) | 32.6 KB
(3x) |
| 50 | 2.20 MB | 300 B (7347x) | 67.1 KB (33x) | 423 KB (5x) | 864 KB
(3x) |
| 100 | 8.78 MB | 600 B (14636x) | 310 KB (28x) | 1.72 MB (5x) | 3.48 MB
(3x) |
| 250 | 54.80 MB | 1.5 KB (36536x) | 2.09 MB (26x) | 10.87 MB (5x) |
21.84 MB (3x) |
| 500 | 219.19 MB | 3.0 KB (73063x) | 8.56 MB (26x) | 43.67 MB (5x) |
87.50 MB (3x) |

**Total checkpoint storage** (blobs + writes + metadata):

| turns | add\_messages | delta(inf) | delta(freq=50) | delta(freq=10) |
delta(freq=5) |

|------:|-------------:|-----------:|---------------:|---------------:|--------------:|
| 10 | 129.7 KB | 38.7 KB (3.4x) | 38.7 KB (3.4x) | 53.1 KB (2.4x) |
71.2 KB (1.8x) |
| 50 | 2.40 MB | 196 KB (12x) | 263 KB (9x) | 620 KB (3.9x) | 1.06 MB
(2.3x) |
| 100 | 9.18 MB | 394 KB (23x) | 703 KB (13x) | 2.12 MB (4.3x) | 3.87 MB
(2.4x) |
| 250 | 55.79 MB | 987 KB (57x) | 3.07 MB (18x) | 11.86 MB (4.7x) |
22.82 MB (2.4x) |
| 500 | 221.16 MB | 1.98 MB (112x) | 10.53 MB (21x) | 45.64 MB (4.9x) |
89.48 MB (2.5x) |

**Write-phase peak heap**:

| turns | add\_messages | delta(inf) | delta(freq=50) | delta(freq=10) |
delta(freq=5) |

|------:|-------------:|-----------:|---------------:|---------------:|--------------:|
| 10 | 456 KB | 199 KB (2.3x) | 199 KB (2.3x) | 212 KB (2.2x) | 232 KB
(2.0x) |
| 50 | 3.04 MB | 742 KB (4.1x) | 805 KB (3.8x) | 1.21 MB (2.5x) | 1.67
MB (1.8x) |
| 100 | 10.70 MB | 1.41 MB (7.6x) | 1.82 MB (5.9x) | 3.42 MB (3.1x) |
5.25 MB (2.0x) |
| 250 | 60.44 MB | 3.36 MB (18x) | 5.67 MB (11x) | 14.87 MB (4.1x) |
26.31 MB (2.3x) |

**Read-phase avg `get_state` latency** (5 calls, InMemory):

| turns | add\_messages | delta(inf) | delta(freq=50) | delta(freq=10) |
delta(freq=5) |

|------:|-------------:|-----------:|---------------:|---------------:|--------------:|
| 10 | 0.7 ms | 1.1 ms (0.6x) | 1.1 ms (0.6x) | 0.8 ms (0.9x) | 0.6 ms
(1.1x) |
| 50 | 2.7 ms | 5.3 ms (0.5x) | 3.5 ms (0.8x) | 2.7 ms (1.0x) | 2.7 ms
(1.0x) |
| 100 | 5.5 ms | 11.1 ms (0.5x) | 6.0 ms (0.9x) | 5.2 ms (1.1x) | 5.4 ms
(1.0x) |
| 250 | 12.9 ms | 27.2 ms (0.5x) | 13.6 ms (0.9x) | 12.9 ms (1.0x) |
13.0 ms (1.0x) |

**Postgres `get_tuple` read latency** (~100 tok/msg per step):

| steps | full-list | delta(inf) | delta(freq=50) | delta(freq=10) |
delta(freq=5) |

|------:|----------:|-----------:|---------------:|---------------:|--------------:|
| 10 | 0.29 ms | 0.21 ms (1.4x) | 0.19 ms (1.6x) | 0.19 ms (1.5x) | 0.19
ms (1.6x) |
| 50 | 0.19 ms | 0.15 ms (1.3x) | 0.19 ms (1.0x) | 0.22 ms (0.8x) | 0.29
ms (0.7x) |
| 100 | 0.27 ms | 0.17 ms (1.6x) | 0.22 ms (1.2x) | 0.23 ms (1.2x) |
0.21 ms (1.3x) |
| 500 | 0.60 ms | 0.30 ms (2.0x) | 0.66 ms (0.9x) | 0.56 ms (1.1x) |
0.69 ms (0.9x) |

**Takeaway:** `snapshot_frequency=10` matches full-list read latency
while still saving 5x on blob storage and ~4x on total storage.

---

## How it works

### Checkpoint blobs

`checkpoint()` always returns `DELTA_SENTINEL` (a zero-byte msgpack ext
marker) instead of the accumulated value. On restore, the saver's
`_get_channel_writes_history` walks the ancestor chain collecting
`checkpoint_writes` entries and replays them through the reducer:

```python
# blob stored per step: ~1 byte (sentinel)
# vs. full list growing O(N) every step with BinaryOperatorAggregate
```

### Reducer interface

`DeltaChannel` takes a **batch reducer** `(state, list[writes]) ->
state` — all writes for a step arrive in one call, enabling single-pass
implementations:

```python
# ❌ Don't use add_messages directly — it's a binary operator, not a batch reducer
messages: Annotated[list, DeltaChannel(add_messages)]  # wrong

# ✅ Use _messages_delta_reducer — single pass, dedup by ID, RemoveMessage support
messages: Annotated[list, DeltaChannel(_messages_delta_reducer)]

# ✅ Or write your own batch reducer for custom types
def my_dict_reducer(state: dict, writes: list[dict]) -> dict:
    result = dict(state)
    for w in writes:
        result.update(w)
    return result

files: Annotated[dict, DeltaChannel(my_dict_reducer)]
```

### Snapshot frequency

`snapshot_frequency=N` writes a full `_DeltaSnapshot` blob every N
pregel steps, bounding replay depth regardless of thread length.
Snapshots are eager — written even if the channel had no update that
step, so the depth bound always holds:

```python
# Replay walks at most 10 ancestors before hitting a snapshot
messages: Annotated[list, DeltaChannel(_messages_delta_reducer, snapshot_frequency=10)]
```

### Migration from `BinaryOperatorAggregate`

Pre-existing threads written under `BinaryOperatorAggregate` work
transparently after swapping the annotation — the saver detects a
plain-value ancestor blob and uses it as the reconstruction seed:

```python
# Before: BinaryOperatorAggregate stores full list every step
items: Annotated[list, add_messages]

# After: DeltaChannel — existing checkpoints still readable, new steps use sentinel
items: Annotated[list, DeltaChannel(_messages_delta_reducer)]
```

### Async write-ordering safety

In `durability="async"` mode (default), `put_writes` calls are
fire-and-forget. `AsyncPregelLoop` tracks in-flight `aput_writes`
futures for DeltaChannel channels in `_delta_write_futs` and drains them
via `await asyncio.gather()` in `_checkpointer_put_after_previous`
before `aput()` — ensuring `checkpoint_writes` are durable before the
sentinel blob is committed.

---

## What's in scope

- **`libs/langgraph/langgraph/channels/delta.py`** — `DeltaChannel`
implementation
- **`libs/langgraph/langgraph/graph/message.py`** —
`_messages_delta_reducer` (experimental)
- **`libs/checkpoint/`** — `_get_channel_writes_history` ancestor-walk
API on `BaseCheckpointSaver`, `InMemorySaver` optimized override
- **`libs/checkpoint-postgres/`** — `PostgresSaver` /
`AsyncPostgresSaver` single-roundtrip UNION ALL override
- **`libs/langgraph/langgraph/pregel/`** — `channels_from_checkpoint` /
`create_checkpoint` wiring, async write-ordering safety

---

## Follow-ups

- **Batch reconstruction**: each DeltaChannel field issues its own
`_get_channel_writes_history` call; a single walk collecting all
sentinel channels would reduce roundtrips proportionally to the number
of DeltaChannel fields.
- **Sync write ordering**: `BackgroundExecutor.__exit__` guarantees
completion before `invoke()` returns, but within a run there's no
explicit ordering between `put_writes` and `put`. Two-phase commit for
sync would close this gap.
- **`ShallowPostgresSaver` compatibility**: shallow savers keep only the
latest checkpoint and have no parent chain to walk; DeltaChannel is
currently incompatible and should raise or warn at compile time.
- Updating the writes table w/ delta epoch ids for more efficient reads
- follow up w/ LSD checkpointer implementations to support delta
channel! and update prune

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: ccurme <chester.curme@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Will Fu-Hinthorn <will@langchain.dev>
2026-04-29 17:26:17 -04:00
..
2026-02-26 12:01:58 -08:00
2026-04-27 10:27:56 -04:00

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))