microsoft/agent-framework

Microsoft Agent Framework (MAF)

What it is: An open‑source, multi‑language SDK for building production‑grade AI agents and multi‑agent workflows. It ships libraries for Python, .NET/C#, and a separate Go SDK, letting developers write agents in the language they prefer while using a common set of concepts and APIs.

Key capabilities

• Cross‑language support – identical programming model in Python and .NET; Go SDK available separately.
• Provider‑agnostic – works with Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, GitHub Copilot SDK, and other LLM providers.
• Graph‑based orchestration – define sequential, concurrent, hand‑off, and group‑collaboration patterns; includes checkpointing, streaming, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls.
• Middleware – plug‑in request/response processing, error handling, and custom pipelines.
• Observability – built‑in OpenTelemetry integration for tracing and metrics.
• Declarative agents – agents can be described in YAML for easy versioning.
• Agent skills – attach domain‑specific knowledge bases (files, code, libraries) that agents can query.
• Hosting options – run locally, on Azure Functions/Durable Tasks, or as Foundry‑hosted agents with minimal code changes.
• Developer UI – interactive UI for testing and debugging workflows.

Typical use‑cases

• Enterprise‑level chat assistants that need reliable state, retries, and monitoring.
• Complex multi‑agent systems (e.g., a planner agent coordinating specialist agents).
• Applications that must switch LLM providers or move from prototype to production without rewriting core logic.

Getting started

• Install the Python package: pip install agent-framework (or the .NET NuGet Microsoft.Agents.AI).
• Follow the quick‑start samples to create a simple “HaikuAgent” that calls a Foundry‑hosted model.
• Explore the extensive sample directories for agents, middleware, workflows, and hosting patterns.

Community & support

• Official docs on Microsoft Learn, a Discord community, weekly office hours, and a public issue tracker.
• Contributions are welcomed via the repo’s CONTRIBUTING guide.

Bottom line: Microsoft Agent Framework is a genuine, production‑focused toolkit for building, orchestrating, and operating AI agents across multiple languages and cloud providers, making it a solid choice for teams moving beyond single‑prompt chat bots into robust, observable agent systems.