Microsoft Agent Framework

What it is

Microsoft Learn describes Agent Framework as the direct successor to AutoGen and Semantic Kernel, created by the same teams. It combines AutoGen's simple agent abstractions with Semantic Kernel's enterprise features, including session-based state management, type safety, middleware, and telemetry, and adds graph-based workflows for explicit multi-agent orchestration.

The building blocks are agents that use LLMs to process inputs, call tools and MCP servers, and generate responses across providers such as Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, and Ollama; a Harness agent with planning, context compaction, file access, and tool approval for long multi-step tasks; workflows that connect agents and functions through explicit execution paths; and integrations for model providers, tools, context providers, and middleware, with MCP clients for tool integration.

The framework ships as language SDKs rather than a hosted service. Python installs with pip install agent-framework, .NET uses the Microsoft.Agents.AI NuGet packages, and a Go module is published from the same repository. Microsoft publishes migration guides from both Semantic Kernel and AutoGen, because the APIs are new rather than a drop-in rename.

Setup

Create a first Agent Framework agent (Python)

Install the agent-framework package from PyPI, then build an Agent on the OpenAI chat client, following the package README's simple-agent example. Set OPENAI_API_KEY first, or swap in another provider client such as Foundry.

pip install agent-framework

import asyncio
from agent_framework import Agent
from agent_framework.openai import OpenAIChatClient

async def main():
    agent = Agent(
        client=OpenAIChatClient(),
        instructions="You are a friendly assistant. Keep your answers brief.",
    )
    result = await agent.run("What is the largest city in France?")
    print(result)

asyncio.run(main())

Source: https://pypi.org/pypi/agent-framework/json. Examples use placeholders only.

MCP support: MCP clients are a foundational building block: agents connect to MCP servers for tool integration and can call tools and MCP servers directly, per the Microsoft Learn overview.

Health and maintenance

Verified compatible tools

Grouped view: tools for Microsoft Agent Framework.