AutoGen

AutoGen pioneered the multi-agent conversation pattern — agents debating, collaborating, and building consensus through natural language. Microsoft's framework made it easy to spin up group chats between AI agents with different roles, and 56k stars proved the concept resonated.

Then Microsoft shifted strategic focus to the broader Microsoft Agent Framework, putting AutoGen in effective maintenance mode. CrewAI took the multi-agent torch and runs with it — 40% faster time-to-production for business workflows. LangGraph is the enterprise choice for deterministic, stateful agent systems.

Use AutoGen if your use case is genuinely conversational — group debates, consensus-building, or sequential multi-party dialogues. Its conversation patterns are the most diverse of any framework.

The catch: maintenance mode means bug fixes and security patches, but no major new features. The community is actively migrating to CrewAI and LangGraph. The CC-BY-4.0 license is unusual for software (it's designed for content, not code). And AutoGen's non-deterministic conversation flow is a feature for research but a liability for production systems that need consistent outputs.