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Forage

Opinionated bean factories for Apache Camel.

Forage eliminates manual Java bean instantiation by providing factory classes configurable through properties files, environment variables, or system properties. Write your Camel routes — Forage handles the wiring.

Why Forage?

Apache Camel components often require manually creating and registering Java beans — data sources, connection factories, AI models, transaction managers. Forage replaces that boilerplate with a configuration-driven approach:

# "ordersDb" becomes a named bean — use it in routes as #ordersDb
forage.ordersDb.jdbc.db.kind=postgresql
forage.ordersDb.jdbc.url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/orders
forage.ordersDb.jdbc.username=admin
forage.ordersDb.jdbc.password=secret

No Java code. No Spring @Bean methods. No Quarkus producers. Just properties. The name you choose (e.g. ordersDb) registers a bean in the Camel registry, ready to reference in your routes as #ordersDb.

Features

  • JDBC — Auto-configured datasources with connection pooling
  • JMS — Connection factories for ActiveMQ Artemis and more
  • AI Agents — LangChain4j integration with tool use and memory
  • Chat Models — OpenAI, Ollama, Gemini, Anthropic, and more
  • Vector DBs — Qdrant, Milvus, PGVector, and more
  • Transactions — XA distributed transactions with Narayana

Runtime Support

Forage works with all major Camel runtimes:

Runtime Support
Camel JBang Run directly with camel run (Forage plugin auto-discovers dependencies)
Camel Spring Boot Auto-configuration via starters
Camel Quarkus Native compilation ready

Quick Example

A complete AI agent with tool use in just two files:

- route:
    from:
      uri: timer:agent
      parameters:
        repeatCount: 1
      steps:
        - setBody:
            constant: "give details of user 123"
        - to:
            uri: langchain4j-agent:myGraniteAgent
            parameters:
              agent: "#myGraniteAgent"
        - log: "${body}"

# "myGraniteAgent" — pick any name, then reference it in routes as #myGraniteAgent
forage.myGraniteAgent.agent.model.kind=ollama
forage.myGraniteAgent.agent.model.name=granite4:3b
forage.myGraniteAgent.agent.base.url=http://localhost:11434

Getting Started

Ready to dive in? Head to the Getting Started guide.

Looking for working examples? Check out the Examples gallery.