Microsoft Agent Framework
Successor SDK to Semantic Kernel and AutoGen
Overview
Microsoft's MIT-licensed SDK for building and orchestrating AI agents and multi-agent workflows, succeeding Semantic Kernel and AutoGen. Version 1.0 for Python and .NET shipped on 3 April 2026 with stable APIs; a Go SDK is in public preview. It connects to Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Gemini and Ollama.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 12 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
What you can produce with Microsoft Agent Framework
- MIT-licensed Python and .NET SDKs, with Go in public preview
- Graph-based workflow engine with checkpointing
- Sequential, concurrent, handoff, group-chat and Magentic-One orchestration
- Human-in-the-loop approvals and pause and resume
- Middleware, pluggable memory and OpenTelemetry tracing
- MCP tools, A2A messaging and declarative YAML agents
- Migration guides from Semantic Kernel and AutoGen
Microsoft has consolidated its agent tooling: Agent Framework 1.0, released 3 April 2026, succeeds Semantic Kernel and AutoGen, joining agent abstractions to a stable graph-based workflow engine with checkpointing, middleware, OpenTelemetry, MCP and A2A, with consistent Python and .NET APIs.
DevUI is still a preview sample, and Microsoft publishes no migration time estimate. First-class .NET support is the clearest reason to choose it over LangGraph or CrewAI if your team works in C# on Azure.
What we found
Microsoft Agent Framework is Microsoft's open-source SDK for AI agents and multi-agent workflows, and the designated successor to both Semantic Kernel and AutoGen. Introduced in October 2025, it reached version 1.0 for Python and .NET on 3 April 2026, which Microsoft's announcement describes as the production-ready release with stable APIs and long-term support; earlier versions of this page gave a later date. AutoGen's repository now says it is in maintenance mode and points new users here. The code is MIT-licensed, and a separate Go SDK is in public preview.
The stable core covers agents with connectors for Microsoft Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, Google Gemini and Ollama; middleware; pluggable memory; and a graph-based workflow engine with checkpointing. Sequential, concurrent, handoff, group-chat and Magentic-One orchestrations support streaming, human-in-the-loop approval and pause-and-resume. MCP tools, A2A messaging, YAML-defined agents and OpenTelemetry tracing are included. DevUI, the browser debugger for watching messages and tool calls, shipped as a preview, and the documentation calls it a sample app not intended for production.
Releases are frequent: Python 1.21.0 and .NET 1.24.0 shipped in early October 2026. Migration guides and assistants exist for Semantic Kernel and AutoGen users, though we found no published estimate of how long a migration takes.
Surrounding tooling carries risk. In June 2026 Microsoft's own security researchers disclosed AutoJack, a chain in AutoGen Studio through which a web page read by a browsing agent could launch processes via a local MCP WebSocket. Microsoft says the affected code never reached a PyPI release and was fixed; the lesson it drew was that localhost stops being a trust boundary once an agent browses the web.
The SDK costs nothing. Running on Foundry Agent Service bills model tokens, tools and hosted-agent compute, and the pricing page showed hosted-agent compute as unavailable in Southeast Asia, Malaysia West and Indonesia Central when checked. It suits .NET and Azure teams best.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Microsoft Agent Framework's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Microsoft Agent Framework unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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