Docs: Multi-Step Patterns

[cwing-nvidia]

Document Multi-Step Patterns

Context

Users have asked how to handle multi-step agentic tasks where the agent makes multiple tool calls within a single trajectory. This requires understanding:

• How NeMo Gym maintains state across multiple steps
• The session model and how it routes requests
• When to use stateful vs. stateless patterns
• How to manage state persistence (in-memory vs. database)

We should add documentation for this foundational pattern, and update the README for the example_stateful_counter resource server which demonstrates this.

Problem

Multi-step interactions are core to agentic tasks, but users don't have clear documentation on:

• What happens when an agent makes multiple tool calls
• How to maintain state between those calls (e.g., keeping track of what the agent has done so far)
• The session lifecycle and routing model
• Best practices for stateful resource servers

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] Create a "Multi-Step Interactions" section in documentation that covers:
  • What multi-step means in the context of NeMo Gym
  • How sessions work (creation, routing, cleanup)
  • When you need stateful vs. stateless resource servers
  • State management patterns (in-memory, database, external services)
• [ ] Document example_stateful_counter as a reference implementation:
  • Write comprehensive README
  • Code walkthrough of key patterns
  • Setup and testing instructions
• [ ] Add multi-step pattern to main tutorial flow or as prominent "next step"
• [ ] Consider adding a decision tree: "Does my task need state management?"

Priority

High - foundational pattern needed for most agentic tasks

Related

• Database integration tutorial will build on these session patterns. We need to determine how we structure database examples: as part of this multi-step documentation or as standalone documentation (or both, given this is commonly requested).
• This is separate from multi-turn conversations (user <-> assistant exchanges)

[cwing-nvidia]

@lbliii tagging for visibility