🧩

Agent Frameworks & SDKs

The developer toolkits for building AI agents — frameworks and SDKs that handle planning, tool use, memory, and multi-agent coordination so teams don't rebuild the agent loop from scratch.

Share

Listen to this lesson

Free preview · first 0:30
0:00 / 0:30

Unlock audio and more

Audio streaming, downloadable PDFs and certificates come with Plus and Pro.

📘Overview

Updated July 20, 2026

An AI agent is a system that uses a language model to plan, call tools, and take multi-step actions toward a goal rather than just answering a single prompt. Building one reliably means solving the same hard problems every time: how the model decides what to do next, how it calls external tools and APIs, how it remembers context across steps, and how multiple agents coordinate. Agent frameworks and SDKs package those problems into reusable building blocks.

💡The AI Opportunity

This topic covers the toolkits developers reach for to build agents — open-source frameworks for orchestration and multi-agent workflows, and the official SDKs from the major model labs. They range from low-level libraries that give full control over the agent loop to higher-level frameworks that make common patterns fast to assemble.

🤖AI in Action

The AI here is load-bearing by definition — these tools exist to harness language-model reasoning for autonomous action. The genuine technical work is in reliable tool calling, structured planning, state and memory management, and guardrails that keep an agent on task. The frameworks differ mainly in philosophy: some favor explicit graphs and control, others favor role-based multi-agent collaboration, and the lab SDKs offer the tightest integration with their own models. The honest caveat for learners is that agent reliability is still an open frontier — frameworks make agents easier to build, not automatically dependable.

Keep track of the topics you follow

Sample AI Hub dashboard showing saved tools, a content-updates alert, an AI Skill Streak, and personalized recommendations

Your AI Hub — sample view. Click to enlarge.

🛠️Top AI Tools for This Topic

LangChain logoLangGraph

Production-grade agent orchestration framework by LangChain. Models agent logic as stateful directed graphs with durable execution, human-in-the-loop checkpoints, and persistent memory. v1.0 reached early 2026.

LangChain logoLangChain

The dominant open-source framework for building LLM-powered applications and agents. Python/JS libraries plus LangSmith for tracing and LangGraph for complex agents.

CrewAI logoCrewAI

Framework for orchestrating teams of AI agents with role-based assignments. Agents can use tools, delegate tasks, and collaborate on complex multi-step workflows.

AG2 logoAG2 (formerly AutoGen)

Community-governed open-source multi-agent framework, originally created by Microsoft Research as AutoGen. Build systems where multiple AI agents collaborate, debate, and solve problems together.

LlamaIndex logoLlamaIndex

Open-source framework specialized for building RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems and data-aware LLM applications. Strong for enterprise knowledge bases.

OpenAI logoOpenAI Agents SDK

OpenAI's official framework for building multi-agent systems with tool use, handoffs between agents, and built-in tracing. Supports any model via the API.

Anthropic logoClaude Agent SDK

Anthropic's official SDK for building custom AI agents with Python and TypeScript. Built-in file operations, shell commands, web search, and MCP integration. Sub-agents, background tasks, and Xcode integration.

Anthropic logoClaude Managed Agents

Composable APIs for building and deploying cloud-hosted AI agents at scale — Anthropic handles orchestration, scaling, and monitoring (public beta)

Microsoft logoMicrosoft Agent FrameworkMSFT

Microsoft's unified enterprise platform for building and governing AI agents. Replaces AutoGen (2026). Consolidates agent development under a single framework with enterprise security and compliance.

Google logoGoogle AntigravityGOOG

Agent-first IDE (VS Code fork). Manager View dispatches 5+ agents simultaneously. Artifacts, multi-model support. Free for individuals.

Lyzr logoLyzr

Enterprise AI-agent control plane — build agents in Agent Studio, stress-test them in a simulation engine, and run them with observability, guardrails, and governance.

Circle logoCircle Agent StackCRCL

Open-source primitives from Circle (USDC issuer) that let autonomous AI agents hold, discover, and spend USDC across blockchains — Circle CLI, Agent Wallets, Agent Marketplace, and gas-free Nanopayments down to one-millionth of a dollar.

Zoom out

See the bigger picture: Information & Technology

This topic is one specialty within Information & Technology. Explore the full sector — its AI applications, leading tools, and workforce impact.

View Information & Technology

Explore all 900+ AI tools

The AI Tools Directory covers 19 categories with in-depth pages for every tool.

Open Tools Directory