pettingzoo

---

name: pettingzoo description: Multi-agent reinforcement learning environment API (PettingZoo). Standard API for multi-agent RL extending Gymnasium with Agent Environment Cycle (AEC) and Parallel APIs. Includes Atari, Butterfly, Classic, MPE, and SISL environments. For single-agent RL, use Gymnasium. For algorithm implementations, use stable-baselines3 or CleanRL. license: MIT license tags: [multi-agent-rl, marl-environments, turn-based-games, parallel-envs, pettingzoo] metadata: skill-author: K-Dense Inc. --------|-----|----------| | Turn-based games (card, board games) | ✅ Best fit | ❌ Not appropriate | | Simultaneous action (robotics, MPE) | ⚠️ Works but awkward | ✅ Best fit | | Compatible with CleanRL | ✅ Via wrappers | ❌ Needs conversion | | Compatible with SB3 | ❌ Not directly | ❌ Needs conversion |

3. Key AEC Methods

# Iterate over agents in turn order
for agent in env.agent_iter():
    # Get the observation/reward for the CURRENT agent
    observation, reward, termination, truncation, info = env.last()

    # Check if the agent is done
    if termination or truncation:
        action = None
    else:
        action = policy(observation, agent)

    # Submit action — this steps the environment AND advances to next agent
    env.step(action)

# After loop: check which agents are still active
print(env.agents)  # List of active agents

4. Available Environments

List all available:

from pettingzoo.utils import all_modules
print(all_modules)

5. Utility Wrappers

from pettingzoo.utils import wrappers

# AEC → Parallel conversion
from pettingzoo.utils.conversions import aec_to_parallel
parallel_env = aec_to_parallel(aec_env)

# Parallel → AEC conversion
from pettingzoo.utils.conversions import parallel_to_aec
aec_env = parallel_to_aec(parallel_env)

# Pad observations for different-sized agents
env = wrappers.PadObservations(env)

# Flatten dict observations
env = wrappers.FlattenObservations(env)

6. MPE Example — Cooperative Navigation

from pettingzoo.mpe import simple_spread_v3

env = simple_spread_v3.parallel_env(
    N=3,            # Number of agents
    local_ratio=0.5, # How much agents see
    max_cycles=100,
    render_mode="human",
)

observations, infos = env.reset(seed=42)

for cycle in range(100):
    actions = {}
    for agent in env.agents:
        # observations[agent] is the local observation for that agent
        actions[agent] = env.action_space(agent).sample()

    observations, rewards, terminations, truncations, infos = env.step(actions)

    if all(terminations.values()) or all(truncations.values()):
        break

env.close()

7. Observation and Action Spaces

from pettingzoo.mpe import simple_spread_v3

env = simple_spread_v3.env(N=3)

# Per-agent spaces
for agent in env.possible_agents:
    print(f"{agent} obs: {env.observation_space(agent)}")
    print(f"{agent} act: {env.action_space(agent)}")

# Agent-specific policies
policies = {
    "agent_0": policy_0,
    "agent_1": policy_1,
    "agent_2": policy_2,
}

8. Multi-Agent Atari

from pettingzoo.atari import pong_v3

env = pong_v3.parallel_env(render_mode="human")
observations, infos = env.reset()

# Two agents: "first_0" and "second_0"
# Each sees the game from their perspective
for agent in env.agents:
    print(env.observation_space(agent))  # Box(210, 160, 3)
    print(env.action_space(agent))       # Discrete(6)

9. CleanRL Integration

CleanRL has built-in support for multi-agent PettingZoo Atari:

# See: cleanrl/ppo_pettingzoo_ma_atari.py
from cleanrl.ppo_pettingzoo_ma_atari import make_env

envs = make_env("pong_v3", seed=1)

10. Custom Multi-Agent Environment

from pettingzoo import ParallelEnv
import functools
import gymnasium as gym
from gymnasium import spaces
import numpy as np

class CustomMARLEnv(ParallelEnv):
    metadata = {"name": "custom_marl_v0"}

    def __init__(self, render_mode=None):
        super().__init__()
        self.possible_agents = ["agent_0", "agent_1"]
        self.observation_spaces = {
            a: spaces.Box(low=0, high=1, shape=(4,), dtype=np.float32)
            for a in self.possible_agents
        }
        self.action_spaces = {
            a: spaces.Discrete(3) for a in self.possible_agents
        }
        self.render_mode = render_mode

    def reset(self, seed=None, options=None):
        self.agents = self.possible_agents[:]
        self.state = np.zeros(4, dtype=np.float32)
        observations = {a: self.state.copy() for a in self.agents}
        infos = {a: {} for a in self.agents}
        return observations, infos

    def step(self, actions):
        # Apply actions, update state
        for agent, action in actions.items():
            self.state[0] += (action - 1) * 0.1
        self.state = np.clip(self.state, 0, 1)

        rewards = {a: float(self.state[0]) for a in self.agents}
        terminations = {a: False for a in self.agents}
        truncations = {a: False for a in self.agents}
        observations = {a: self.state.copy() for a in self.agents}
        infos = {a: {} for a in self.agents}

        # Remove dead agents
        if self.state[0] > 0.9:
            self.agents = []

        return observations, rewards, terminations, truncations, infos

    def render(self):
        if self.render_mode == "human":
            print(f"State: {self.state}")

    def close(self):
        pass

11. Supersuit Integration (RL Preprocessing)

pip install supersuit

from pettingzoo.atari import space_invaders_v2
from supersuit import (
    resize_v1, frame_skip_v0, frame_stack_v1,
    color_reduction_v0, dtype_v0, pettingzoo_env_to_vec_env_v1,
)

env = space_invaders_v2.parallel_env()
env = resize_v1(env, (84, 84))
env = frame_skip_v0(env, 4)
env = frame_stack_v1(env, 4)
# Convert to Gymnasium VecEnv for SB3/CleanRL compat
env = pettingzoo_env_to_vec_env_v1(env)

Key Patterns

1. Use AEC API for turn-based games (chess, poker) — sequential logic is natural
2. Use Parallel API for simultaneous actions (MPE, multi-agent Atari)
3. Always check env.agents — it changes as agents are added/removed
4. Use env.observation_space(agent) and env.action_space(agent) — they can differ per agent
5. Supersuit provides RL-ready preprocessing — frame stack, resize, skip
6. PettingZoo uses Gymnasium under the hood — observation/action spaces are from gymnasium.spaces

References

• PettingZoo Documentation
• Environment List
• AEC API Tutorial
• Parallel API Tutorial
• Supersuit — RL preprocessing wrappers