Microsoft has released a Release Candidate for its Agent Framework across .NET and Python, signalling a stable API surface ahead of the planned version 1.0 General Availability release. The open-source framework, which succeeds both Semantic Kernel and AutoGen, provides a unified programming model for building and orchestrating AI agents, supporting providers including Azure OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, AWS Bedrock, and Ollama. It includes graph-based workflow orchestration with sequential, concurrent, handoff, and group chat patterns, and supports interoperability standards A2A, AG-UI, and Model Context Protocol. Migration guides for both predecessor frameworks have been published.

Microsoft Agent Framework Reaches Release Candidate - Microsoft Developer Blogs