Microsoft Agent Framework
ActiveDescription
Microsoft's comprehensive multi-language framework for building, orchestrating, and deploying AI agents and multi-agent workflows with support for Python and .NET.
Key Features
- Multi-language support — first-class Python and C#/.NET with consistent APIs
- Graph-based orchestration patterns: sequential, concurrent, handoff, and group collaboration
- OpenTelemetry built-in for distributed tracing, monitoring, and debugging
- Declarative agent definitions via YAML for faster setup and version control
- Agent Skills — build domain-specific knowledge bases from files, code, and libraries
- Foundry Hosted Agents — deploy to cloud infrastructure with just 2 lines of code
Use Cases
💡 Enterprise-grade multi-agent workflows with durability, restartability, and governance
💡 Cross-platform agent development for teams using both Python and .NET stacks
💡 Production deployment of agents with human-in-the-loop control and checkpointing
💡 Migrating from Semantic Kernel or AutoGen to a unified agent framework
💡 Rapid prototyping with DevUI interactive debugger and declarative agent configs
Strengths & Limitations
✅ Strengths
- • Actively maintained, recent updates
- • High community interest (13.3k stars)
- • Permissive open-source license (MIT)
Categories
Quick Start
pip install agent-framework && python -c "import asyncio; from agent_framework import Agent; from agent_framework.foundry import FoundryChatClient; from azure.identity import AzureCliCredential; async def main(): agent = Agent(client=FoundryChatClient(credential=AzureCliCredential()), name='Agent', instructions='You are helpful.'); print(await agent.run('Say hello')); asyncio.run(main())"