Agent frameworks & orchestration

Libraries and platforms for building multi-step autonomous agents - the layer where you define what an agent can do, and when it stops.

Tool	What it is	Verified
LangGraph	An open-source framework and runtime from LangChain for building stateful agents as graphs that mix deterministic code with LLM-driven steps. Provides durable execution, persistence, human-in-the-loop interrupts, streaming and memory.	2026-10-22
CrewAI	An open-source Python framework for orchestrating teams of agents that each hold a role, goal, backstory and tools, executing through sequential or hierarchical Crews and event-driven Flows. A separate commercial platform (CrewAI AMP) adds a visual editor and governance.	2026-10-22
Microsoft Agent Framework	Microsoft's unified agent SDK and the designated successor to both AutoGen and Semantic Kernel, reaching 1.0 GA on 3 April 2026. Combines AutoGen's multi-agent abstractions with Semantic Kernel's enterprise connectors and observability, adding typed graph-based workflows.	2026-10-22
OpenAI Agents SDK	OpenAI's lightweight open-source framework built from a small set of primitives: Agents, Handoffs, Guardrails, plus Sessions memory and built-in tracing. A production-ready successor to the earlier Swarm experiment.	2026-10-22
LlamaIndex	An open-source Python framework for building RAG and agentic applications over private data, with connectors, indexes, query engines, agents and event-driven Workflows. Companion commercial services LlamaParse and LlamaCloud add document parsing and managed retrieval.	2026-10-22
Pydantic AI	A model-agnostic Python agent framework from the Pydantic team, built for type-safe agents with validated structured outputs, function tools, dependency injection and graph-based control flow. Reached 1.0 in September 2025.	2026-10-22
Mastra	An open-source TypeScript framework for agents, durable typed workflows, RAG, memory, MCP, evals and observability, built by the team behind Gatsby. A commercial platform adds hosted deployment, a visual Studio and enterprise controls.	2026-10-22
DSPy	An open-source Python framework from Stanford NLP for programming rather than prompting language models: you declare typed Signatures and use Modules and Optimizers to compile programs against a metric. Actively developed (v3.4.1, October 2026).	2026-10-22
Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)	Google's open-source, code-first framework for building, evaluating and deploying agents, covering single agents through multi-agent and graph-based workflows. Optimised for Gemini but model- and deployment-agnostic.	2026-10-22

Tool

What it is

Verified

LangGraph

An open-source framework and runtime from LangChain for building stateful agents as graphs that mix deterministic code with LLM-driven steps. Provides durable execution, persistence, human-in-the-loop interrupts, streaming and memory.

2026-10-22

CrewAI

An open-source Python framework for orchestrating teams of agents that each hold a role, goal, backstory and tools, executing through sequential or hierarchical Crews and event-driven Flows. A separate commercial platform (CrewAI AMP) adds a visual editor and governance.

2026-10-22

Microsoft Agent Framework

Microsoft's unified agent SDK and the designated successor to both AutoGen and Semantic Kernel, reaching 1.0 GA on 3 April 2026. Combines AutoGen's multi-agent abstractions with Semantic Kernel's enterprise connectors and observability, adding typed graph-based workflows.

2026-10-22

OpenAI Agents SDK

OpenAI's lightweight open-source framework built from a small set of primitives: Agents, Handoffs, Guardrails, plus Sessions memory and built-in tracing. A production-ready successor to the earlier Swarm experiment.

2026-10-22

LlamaIndex

An open-source Python framework for building RAG and agentic applications over private data, with connectors, indexes, query engines, agents and event-driven Workflows. Companion commercial services LlamaParse and LlamaCloud add document parsing and managed retrieval.

2026-10-22

Pydantic AI

A model-agnostic Python agent framework from the Pydantic team, built for type-safe agents with validated structured outputs, function tools, dependency injection and graph-based control flow. Reached 1.0 in September 2025.

2026-10-22

Mastra

An open-source TypeScript framework for agents, durable typed workflows, RAG, memory, MCP, evals and observability, built by the team behind Gatsby. A commercial platform adds hosted deployment, a visual Studio and enterprise controls.

2026-10-22

DSPy

An open-source Python framework from Stanford NLP for programming rather than prompting language models: you declare typed Signatures and use Modules and Optimizers to compile programs against a metric. Actively developed (v3.4.1, October 2026).

2026-10-22

Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)

Google's open-source, code-first framework for building, evaluating and deploying agents, covering single agents through multi-agent and graph-based workflows. Optimised for Gemini but model- and deployment-agnostic.

2026-10-22