agent-framework
A framework for building, orchestrating and deploying AI agents and multi-agent workflows with support for Python and .NET.
The Lens
By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.
Updated Aug 2026
Microsoft Agent Framework is what AutoGen and Semantic Kernel turned into. Same teams, one SDK, and it reached 1.0 in April 2026 with a long-term support commitment behind it. You get agents, graph-based workflows for sequential, concurrent, and handoff patterns, and an opinionated harness agent that handles planning, todo tracking, and context compaction on long jobs. MIT licensed, all of it.
There is no server to run. Install the Python or .NET package and your only bill is the model provider. It talks to Microsoft Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Ollama, so choosing it does not lock you to Azure. OpenTelemetry is wired in for tracing and the local DevUI gives you step-through debugging of a running workflow.
Python and .NET are the mature targets; Go exists but is public preview and missing declarative agents and RAG. If you are a .NET shop, treat this as the default and stop shopping. Python teams already productive on langchain-ai/langgraph do not have a strong reason to migrate. Solo builders will get moving faster on crewAIInc/crewAI.
The catch: this is a migration, not an upgrade. microsoft/autogen is now in maintenance and its future work happens here, so getting current means rewriting against a migration guide. Pick your lane before you end up running three agent stacks in production.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeFree
Everything. MIT licensed, fully open source, no paid edition and no gated features. Agents, graph-based workflows with checkpointing and human-in-the-loop, the harness agent, declarative YAML agents, agent skills, middleware, OpenTelemetry observability, and the DevUI. Python hit 1.0.0 on 2026-04-02 and is at 1.14.0 as of 2026-08-14.
Paid
No paid tier for the framework. Costs come from what you point it at: model provider tokens (Microsoft Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, or free if you run Ollama locally), and Azure infrastructure if you use Foundry hosted agents rather than running the process yourself.
Self-Hosted Costs
$0 for the framework. It runs anywhere Python or .NET runs, including a laptop. The DevUI runs locally. Production cost is whatever compute already hosts your service plus token spend, which for any real agent workload will dwarf the infrastructure line.
When to Pay
Never for the framework. The decision is which model provider you are willing to pay and whether you want Foundry hosted agents, which trades two lines of code for an Azure bill. Compared to langchain-ai/langgraph, this is the stronger option for .NET and for teams that want telemetry and durability defaults rather than assembling them. crewAIInc/crewAI stays quicker for a small prototype.
Free and MIT with no paid tier. You pay the model provider, not Microsoft, unless you opt into Foundry hosted agents.
What to do by team size
- Solo
- free; you pay the model provider, not Microsoft, and CrewAI is faster for a quick prototype
- Small team
- free; the DevUI and built-in OpenTelemetry save real debugging hours
- Medium team
- free; the obvious default if you are a .NET shop, a lateral move if you already run LangGraph
- Large team
- free; 1.0 ships with long-term support, which is the reason enterprises pick it over lighter frameworks
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Trust Signals
License: MIT License
Use freely, including commercial. Just keep the license.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
About
- Owner
- Microsoft (Organization)
- Backed by
- Microsoft
- Stars
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