OpenAI Agents SDK

OpenAI’s production multi-agent framework.

Successor to Swarm (deprecated March 2025). The smallest primitive surface in the category.

OpenAI Agents SDKMIT26.5k ★Python + TS

Four primitives. That’s the whole API.

The four primitives

Agents

LLM + instructions + tools. The unit.

Handoffs

Typed agent-to-agent transfer. The model emits a tool call.

Guardrails

Input + output validation. Stop the chain on failure.

Sessions

Optional memory. You bring the store.

Strong vs honest

Strong

✓ Smallest API surface — easy to learn

✓ Model-agnostic (100+ providers via adapters)

✓ Free tracing dashboard with any model

Honest

· No persistent state, no graph topology

· Tracing UI tied to OpenAI’s platform

· No governance, RBAC, or approval flows

When to pick it

When you’re already on OpenAI’s stack, want the lightest possible framework, and accept hosted tracing + no built-in governance. Otherwise reach for a real orchestrator.

openai.github.io/openai-agents-python · github.com/openai/openai-agents-python