Microsoft Agent Framework (MAF)
Microsoft’s open-source SDK for agents and multi-agent workflows; the direct successor, from the same teams, to autogen and Semantic Kernel. It combines AutoGen’s simple agent abstractions with Semantic Kernel’s enterprise features (session state, type safety, middleware, telemetry) and adds graph-based workflows.
- GA: 1.0 on 2026-04-03 for .NET and Python (Microsoft DevBlogs); stable APIs, LTS commitment per secondary reports. Go is in public preview (Microsoft Learn). Announced Oct 2025 (per existing vault banner; not re-verified).
- Install:
pip install agent-framework;dotnet add package Microsoft.Agents.AI. - Concepts: agents, workflows (sequential, concurrent, handoff, group chat, Magentic-One), harness agent for long tasks, middleware, pluggable memory, YAML declarative agents. Model providers include Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama.
- Protocols: MCP and A2A 1.0 (model-context-protocol, a2a-protocol); AG-UI integration (ag-ui).
- Migration: official guides from Semantic Kernel and AutoGen. Both are in maintenance mode.
- Harness and Foundry Hosted Agents reported GA after Build 2026 (InfoQ, Aug 2026; not opened).
Sources
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/overview/ (2026-09-30)
- https://devblogs.microsoft.com/agent-framework/microsoft-agent-framework-version-1-0/ (2026-09-30)
- https://github.com/microsoft/autogen (2026-09-30)
- https://www.infoq.com/news/2026/08/agent-framework-harness-ga/ (search snippet only, 2026-09-30)