JuliaDynamics/Agents.jl

Extend Base.propertynames and Base.hasproperty for ABMs to allow tab-autocomplete

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#1202 opened on Mar 3, 2026

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good first issuequality of life

Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. When tab completing to access properties of an ABM (model. followed by pressing tab), the fields of the ABM are shown (which can't be accessed by the model. syntax)

Describe the solution you'd like Add a new method dispatch on propertynames for ABMs. Similar ones need doing for AgentWrapperSoA and for ReinforcementLearningABM. This should enable the autocompleting. Extending hasproperty too would save a bit of a headache based on whether the abmproperties are stored as a struct or a Dict

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
developer experience
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Julia programmingUnderstanding of ABM types in Agents.jl
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
75
Research direction
Examine the current implementation of propertynames and hasproperty in Agents.jl. Look at the definition of ABM, AgentWrapperSoA, and ReinforcementLearningABM to understand their structure. Then add method dispatches for these functions for each type. Consult Julia's Base documentation for the correct method signatures.