Neo4j
Translate natural language into Cypher with Neo4jTools to inspect the schema, list labels and traverse multi-hop relationships.
Enable Agno agents to use natural language queries to perform "Multi-hop Reasoning" by interacting with Neo4j database. Agents can find connections that are three or four levels deep, such as finding the supplier of a component used in a product bought by a customer who also complained about a specific shipping delay.
Prerequisites
(Click to view details)
Choose one of the options to set up Neo4j locally:
-
Install Docker if you haven't already from https://www.docker.com/
-
Run Neo4j in Docker:
docker run \
--name neo4j \
-p 7474:7474 -p 7687:7687 \
-d \
-v $HOME/neo4j/data:/data \
-v $HOME/neo4j/logs:/logs \
-v $HOME/neo4j/import:/var/lib/neo4j/import \
-v $HOME/neo4j/plugins:/plugins \
--env NEO4J_AUTH=neo4j/password \
neo4j:latest- Access Neo4j Browser: Open http://localhost:7474 in your browser
- Username:
neo4j - Password:
password
- Download Neo4j Desktop from https://neo4j.com/download/
- Install and create a new database
- Start the database and note the connection details
- Download from https://neo4j.com/download-center/#community
- Extract and run:
tar -xf neo4j-community-*-unix.tar.gz
cd neo4j-community-*
./bin/neo4j start- Install required packages:
uv pip install agno neo4j openai python-dotenv - Set environment variables (create a
.envfile in your project root):NEO4J_URI=bolt://localhost:7687 NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j NEO4J_PASSWORD=password OPENAI_API_KEY=***
Usage
- Ensure Neo4j is running (check http://localhost:7474)
- Run this script to create an agent that can interact with your Neo4j database
- Test with queries like "What are the node labels in my graph?" or "Show me the database schema"
import os
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIChat
from agno.tools.neo4j import Neo4jTools
from dotenv import load_dotenv
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Create Agent
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Run Agent
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
load_dotenv()
# Optionally load from environment or hardcode here
uri = os.getenv("NEO4J_URI", "bolt://localhost:7687")
user = os.getenv("NEO4J_USERNAME", "neo4j")
password = os.getenv("NEO4J_PASSWORD", "password")
# Example 1: All functions enabled (default)
neo4j_toolkit_all = Neo4jTools(
uri=uri,
user=user,
password=password,
all=True,
)
# Example 2: Specific functions only
neo4j_toolkit_specific = Neo4jTools(
uri=uri,
user=user,
password=password,
enable_list_labels=True,
enable_get_schema=True,
enable_list_relationships=False,
enable_run_cypher=False,
)
# Example 3: Default behavior
neo4j_toolkit = Neo4jTools(
uri=uri,
user=user,
password=password,
)
description = """You are a Neo4j expert assistant who can help with all operations in a Neo4j database by understanding natural language context and translating it into Cypher queries."""
instructions = [
"Analyze the user's context and convert it into Cypher queries that respect the database's current schema.",
"Before performing any operation, query the current schema (e.g., check for existing nodes or relationships).",
"If the necessary schema elements are missing, dynamically create or extend the schema using best practices, ensuring data integrity and consistency.",
"If properties are required or provided for nodes or relationships, ensure that they are added correctly do not overwrite existing ones and do not create duplicates and do not create extra nodes.",
"Optionally, use or implement a dedicated function to retrieve the current schema (e.g., via a 'get_schema' function).",
"Ensure that all operations maintain data integrity and follow best practices.",
"Intelligently create relationships if bi-directional relationships are required, and understand the users intent and create relationships accordingly.",
"Intelligently handle queries that involve multiple nodes and relationships, understand has to be nodes, properties, and relationships and maintain best practices.",
"Handle errors gracefully and provide clear feedback to the user.",
]
# Example: Use with AGNO Agent
agent = Agent(
model=OpenAIChat(id="o3-mini"),
tools=[neo4j_toolkit],
markdown=True,
description=description,
instructions=instructions,
)
# Agent handles tool usage automatically via LLM reasoning
agent.print_response(
"Add some nodes in my graph to represent a person with the name John Doe and a person with the name Jane Doe, and they belong to company 'X' and they are friends."
)
agent.print_response("What is the schema of my graph?")The active example uses neo4j_toolkit, which exposes arbitrary Cypher and can write to the database. Its first prompt inserts example people and relationships. To inspect only labels and schema, use tools=[neo4j_toolkit_specific] and replace the insertion prompt with a schema question. Prompt instructions alone do not make queries read-only.
The example constructs three drivers. Close each with .driver.close() in a finally block when finished.
Run the Example
# Clone and setup repo
git clone https://github.com/agno-agi/agno.git
cd agno
git checkout d703c34f3abf3c41275d3fb2da6e0518a8881f24
# Create and activate virtual environment
./scripts/demo_setup.sh
source .venvs/demo/bin/activate
uv pip install agno neo4j openai python-dotenv
# Export relevant API keys
export NEO4J_PASSWORD="password"
export NEO4J_URI="bolt://localhost:7687"
export NEO4J_USERNAME="neo4j"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="***"
python cookbook/91_tools/neo4j_tools.pyTroubleshooting
- Connection refused: Make sure Neo4j is running on the correct port (7687)
- Authentication failed: Verify your username/password in the Neo4j browser first
- Import errors: Install the neo4j driver with
uv pip install neo4j
For details, see Neo4j cookbook.