openai/openai-agents-python

OpenAI's official lightweight Python framework for multi-agent workflows. Released April 2026 as OpenAI's answer to Microsoft Agent Framework and Google ADK. Small surface area, opinionated primitives, first-class tool calls against the OpenAI API. If you already ship on GPT and Responses API, this is the path of least resistance to multi-agent. The SDK ships four primitives: Agents (LLMs with instructions and tools), Handoffs (one agent delegating to another), Guardrails (input and output validation), and Sessions (automatic conversation history). That is the entire mental model. Compare to LangGraph's graph-of-nodes complexity or Microsoft's full stack with DevUI and MCP Apps, and the OpenAI SDK reads like a deliberate reduction. No orchestration DSL, no registry, no runtime UI. Just Python. Early ecosystem response has been strong — the repo has trended on GitHub since launch and is already on PyPI. Tracing is built in with OpenAI's dashboard. MCP support is shipped. Local model compatibility lands through LiteLLM. The bet is that a smaller framework wins developer mindshare because it gets out of the way. The critique: minimalism cuts both ways. There is no built-in DevUI like Microsoft Agent Framework 1.0 ships, no visual tool-call debugger, no LTS commitment. If you need a production-ready agent platform with enterprise governance, you are on your own for observability, deployment, and versioning. For prototyping and for OpenAI-first stacks, it is the cleanest option.