Files
langgraph/libs/checkpoint
Sydney RunkleandClaude Opus 4.7 3a7ed5b454 refactor(delta-channel): honest data model, private experimental API
Restructure DeltaChannel reconstruction so the hydration path matches
pregel's storage axes (blobs + writes) without leaking internal DTOs
into the public checkpoint contract.

Key changes:

* Deleted `DeltaChannelWrites` dataclass and `SEED_UNSET` sentinel.
  Reconstruction data no longer flows through `Checkpoint.channel_values`
  as a wrapped DTO — that field now carries a value or `DELTA_SENTINEL`,
  never a reconstruction shape.
* Added private `_ChannelWritesHistory(seed: Any, writes: list[PendingWrite])`
  NamedTuple as the return type for the new storage-level query.
* Added private, experimental `_get_channel_writes_history` /
  `_aget_channel_writes_history` on `BaseCheckpointSaver` — reference
  impl via `get_tuple` + `parent_config` walk, overridden on
  `InMemorySaver` / `PostgresSaver` / `AsyncPostgresSaver` for perf.
  Fixes a latent migration bug in the base fallback (now inspects
  ancestor `channel_values` for pre-delta seed).
* `DeltaChannel.from_checkpoint(seed)` simplified to two cases
  (sentinel/MISSING → empty, else → seed). New `replay_writes` method
  folds `list[PendingWrite]` through the reducer.
* Delta hydration consolidated inside `channels_from_checkpoint` via
  optional `saver` + `config` kwargs (+ async mirror
  `achannels_from_checkpoint`). All six pregel call sites updated.
  `get_tuple` no longer patches `channel_values` — removed
  `_resolve_delta_channels` (memory) and per-tuple reconstruction from
  `_load_checkpoint_tuple` (postgres sync + async).
* Hydration short-circuits on the target's own blob: if
  `channel_values[k]` is a real value (pre-migration tip, `update_state`
  result), use it directly. Only walks ancestors when the target holds
  sentinel or is missing. Fixes a correctness bug where migration-tip
  and `update_state` values would be lost.
* New test_delta_channel_migration.py: 10 scenarios covering
  BinaryOperatorAggregate → DeltaChannel migration (basic + async,
  time-travel, fork, `update_state`, tip-of-pre-migration, base-saver
  fallback parity, cross-thread isolation).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-23 14:15:02 -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))