.NET: Switch to new "Run" method name.

[philliphoff]

Motivation and Context

Currently, the durable agent entities use an entity method name to invoke the agent that is specific to each supported platform (e.g. RunAgentAsync on .NET but run_agent on Python). This makes it difficult for external tools (such as the Durable Task Scheduler Dashboard) to interact with durable agents in a platform agnostic manner.

This change updates the .NET durable agent infrastructure to use a new, more general Run (case-insensitive) method name. The existing RunAgentAsync method will still be available to accommodate older MAF clients and any pending entity signals, but considered deprecated. After a reasonable time, the RunAgentAsync method will be removed.

Resolves (for .NET) #2234. A corresponding change will be needed for Python.

Description

Adds a new Run method to the AgentEntity that performs the same logic as the existing RunAgentAsync method. The RunAgentAsync method then just delegates to the new method (in preparation for it being removed in the future).

Contribution Checklist

• The code builds clean without any errors or warnings
• The PR follows the Contribution Guidelines
• All unit tests pass, and I have added new tests where possible
• Is this a breaking change? If yes, add "[BREAKING]" prefix to the title of the PR.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces a platform-agnostic method name "RunAgent" to replace the .NET-specific "RunAgentAsync" method name for invoking durable agent entities. This enables external tools like the Durable Task Scheduler Dashboard to interact with agents across different platforms (e.g., .NET and Python) in a consistent manner.

Key Changes

• Introduced new RunAgent method as the primary entity operation name
• Maintained backward compatibility by keeping RunAgentAsync as a wrapper that delegates to RunAgent
• Updated all internal callers to use the new method name
• Added comprehensive integration tests to verify both method names work correctly

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
dotnet/src/Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask/AgentEntity.cs	Added new RunAgent method and converted RunAgentAsync to a wrapper for backward compatibility
dotnet/src/Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask/DurableAIAgent.cs	Updated entity call to use RunAgent instead of RunAgentAsync
dotnet/src/Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask/DefaultDurableAgentClient.cs	Updated entity signal to use RunAgent instead of RunAgentAsync
dotnet/tests/Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask.IntegrationTests/AgentEntityTests.cs	Added parameterized test to verify both "RunAgent" and "RunAgentAsync" method names work correctly

Note: According to the repository's coding guidelines for the Durable Task area (CodingGuidelineID: 1000002), this PR should include an entry in the CHANGELOG.md file under an "## [Unreleased]" heading. The CHANGELOG.md file was not modified in this PR.

[cgillum]

@philliphoff one thing not mentioned in the PR description - what is the plan for Python?

[philliphoff]

one thing not mentioned in the PR description - what is the plan for Python?

@cgillum I could give it a go (but would rather it be a separate PR)?

[cgillum]

@philliphoff sorry I should have been more clear. I'm not asking that we make the Python change in the same PR (though that would be nice). Rather, I'm trying to understand what kind of change we plan on making (now or later) in Python. In the PR description, you call out the name differences as being RunAgentAsync vs run_agent. With your change, it's now RunAgent vs run_agent. Does this mean we plan on changing Python to be RunAgent, which goes against Python method naming conventions?

I originally assumed we'd want to go with a name that works with the conventions of both languages. For example, using Run (.NET) and run in Python, without needing to worry about PascalCase vs. snake_case conventions.

[philliphoff]

I originally assumed we'd want to go with a name that works with the conventions of both languages. For example, using Run (.NET) and run in Python, without needing to worry about PascalCase vs. snake_case conventions.

@cgillum I suggested/chose the case-insensitive runagent for the common name as it's the most basic verb-object form for method naming. (Run, in my opinion, is too terse and generic, but I could go along with that, too.) Since they're just strings passed to the signal method, there's no reason for it to be tied to any platform convention (other than their implementations which happen to directly bind to a method with that name). RunAgent doesn't conform to the .NET guidelines (due to the missing Async suffix). Luckily, the DF SDK treats entity method names as case-insensitive, which allows the .NET implementation to be near idiomatic.

(I was actually surprised that the DF SDK doesn't allow overriding the entity method name via attribute; that would be a bit cleaner.)

[cgillum]

@philliphoff okay, that's basically what I wanted to confirm. I'd personally prefer run because then we only have to violate the conventions of one language and not two languages, but it's not a blocker to me as long as the Python folks are also okay with it. As far as verb-object, I'm not worried about that because the object is implied by the fact that this is an "Agent" instance that you're invoking. In that sense, "RunAgent" or "run_agent" is already redundant and renaming to "run" removes the redundancy.

/cc @larohra @gavin-aguiar

[philliphoff]

The corresponding Python change is #2890.

[cgillum]

Looks good. Can you also update the CHANGELOG.md file with this update? I was hoping Copilot would ask for this, but it seems to not be following the new instructions I added.

[philliphoff]

Can you also update the CHANGELOG.md file with this update?

Added.