Agent Atlas / Agent frameworks

microsoft/agent-framework

A Microsoft framework for building, orchestrating, and deploying agents and multi-agent workflows across Python and .NET.

Agent framework Scope profile Project documented Reviewed August 26, 2026
Intended operator

Python and .NET developers building agent services and workflows.

Primary surfaces

Python packages / .NET packages / multi-agent workflow APIs

Tracked repository

microsoft/agent-framework

Teaching mechanism

Orchestration is an application contract, not a model feature

The repository separates agent construction from explicit multi-agent workflow and deployment APIs in two language ecosystems.

Evidence limitTheGitReporter has not yet compared lifecycle, persistence, and authority guarantees across the Python and .NET implementations.
Inspect the source
System map status

Reporting is still in progress.

This scope profile names the project's place in the field and one useful mechanism. It does not claim that every runtime boundary has been inspected.

Learn Through This Project

7 lessons
Chapter 1 Before the First Model Request Chapter 3 Tool Calls: Contract, Authorization, Execution Chapter 4 Loops, Workflows, and Recovery Chapter 5 Delegation Is a Distributed System Chapter 7 The Approval Trap Chapter 9 Trust Must Make Its Case Chapter 10 The Future Has Three Branches

Compare Its Boundaries

6 labs
Comparison labTool ContractsComparison labDelegation ReceiptsComparison labApproval BoundariesComparison labSessions And RecoveryComparison labEvidence And EvaluationComparison labMaturity Signals

Latest Reporting

6 articles
Builder Work: An Approval Must Point to This Exact Invocation

September 3, 2026 — Microsoft Agent Framework’s Copilot-assisted approval repair shows the craft worth stealing: authorize one stable local occurrence, not a provider’s reusable tool-call label. microsoft/agent-framework

 API Discovery: A Running Foundry Agent Can Take a Course Correction

August 23, 2026 — Microsoft Agent Framework’s preview Foundry Hosting source adds an opt-in that lets an in-flight conversation queue a second input instead of treating it as a lock error. microsoft/agent-framework

 A Denied Agent Answer Should Not Survive in Memory

August 7, 2026 — Microsoft’s experimental Agent Hooks adapter treats a rejected response as a session-history problem too: the verdict is meant to arrive before the reader sees it and before the affected context becomes durable. microsoft/agent-framework, responsibleai/agent-hooks

 QM is trying to turn the personal agent into company infrastructure

August 1, 2026 — Y Combinator's new open-source harness does not win its case by running Codex or Claude in Slack. Its more consequential bet is that every person and room needs a clearly owned memory, workspace, permission set, schedule, and durable computer. yc-software/qm, block/buzz, egregore-labs/egregore, openclaw/openclaw, NousResearch/hermes-agent, crewAIInc/crewAI, microsoft/agent-framework

 An Agent Framework Can Carry Your Request—Not Your Responsibility

July 29, 2026 — Microsoft Agent Framework's newest A2A and BYOK samples make one quiet operating rule visible: let a caller's configuration cross the boundary, but leave the host's policy and the provider's obligations where they belong. microsoft/agent-framework

 Microsoft Agent Framework: the successor built from AutoGen and Semantic Kernel

July 29, 2026 — Microsoft's new framework has migration paths for AutoGen and Semantic Kernel, but its freshest source work makes a more practical promise: carry a caller's intent across an agent boundary without letting it overrule the host that operates the run. microsoft/agent-framework

Primary Sources

Microsoft Agent Framework repository

Primary public framework and examples source.

Open Questions

  • Do both language implementations preserve the same delegation, cancellation, and evidence semantics?

Evidence state describes what this Atlas profile can support today. It is not a product score and it is not evidence that uninspected capabilities are absent.