Inconsistent behaviour between `adk web` vs `adk run`

[shu8hamrajput]

the behaviour is different when running agent via run command and web command i have following dir structure.

agent_flow
├── __init__.py
├── agent.py

init.py looks like

from . import agent

agent.py looks like

from google.adk.agents import LlmAgent
from google.adk.tools import agent_tool

root_agent = LlmAgent(
    name="RefineRequest",
    model="gemini-2.0-flash",
    description="You are a agent that refines user requests",
    instruction=(
        " Your task is to refine the user request to make it more specific and actionable."
        " You can split the request into smaller tasks if needed."
        " You can ask clarifying questions or provide suggestions to improve the request."
    ),
    tools=[]
)

when running a agent from a module via adk run agent_flow the agent is able to start conversation with root_agent by default but when i run adk web agent_flow the ui can not detect any agent.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

1. create above project structure
2. Run adk run agent_flow
3. Now run adk web agent_flow
4. notice the difference

Expected behaviour the web should run with root_agent agent.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: ProductName: macOS 13.7.5
• Python version(python -V): Python 3.11.11
• ADK version(pip show google-adk): google-adk 0.3.0

[Rohit990634]

Hi,

I was facing the same issue. The issue got resolved once I executed only adk web command from the root folder (in your case the folder containing agent_flow)

[rodolfo-salgado]

I ran into a similar problem. My project contains a directory with subagents like this

main_agent/
├── subagents/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── subagent_1.py
│   └── subagent_2.py
├── __init__.py
└── agent.py

When running adk web main_agent it always loads subagents instead of main_agent. adk run main_agent runs correctly, however.

[wyf7107]

Hi all, you need to run adk web in the PARENT folder of your agent. @shu8hamrajput , in your case, you need to run adk web in the parent folder of agent_flow, and @rodolfo-salgado same here, run adk web in the parent folder of main_agent.

There is a troubleshoot section in the tutorial doc stating this: https://google.github.io/adk-docs/get-started/quickstart/#run-your-agent

[wyf7107]

We are looking into adding the ability for you to run adk web directly with the agent folder, but for now run the command against the parent folder will solve