Agents are applications that plan, call tools, collaborate across specialists, and keep enough state to complete multi-step work.
- Use the Responses API when one model call plus tools and application-owned logic is enough.
- Use the Agents SDK pages when your application owns orchestration, tool execution, approvals, and state.
Start with the Agents SDK quickstart to install the SDK, define one agent, and run it. Once that works, return here to choose the next capability your application needs.
Use the GitHub repositories for more examples, issues, and language-specific reference details.
| If you want to | Start here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Build a code-first agent app | Quickstart | This is the shortest path to a working SDK integration. |
| Define one specialist cleanly | Agent definitions | Start here when you are still shaping the contract for a single agent. |
| Choose models, defaults, and transport | Models and providers | Use this when model choice, provider setup, or transport strategy affects the workflow. |
| Understand the runtime loop and state | Running agents | This is where the agent loop, streaming, and continuation strategies live. |
| Run work in a container-based environment | Sandbox agents | Use this when the agent needs files, commands, packages, snapshots, mounts, or provider links. |
| Design specialist ownership | Orchestration and handoffs | Use this when you need more than one agent and must decide who owns the reply. |
| Add validation or human review | Guardrails and human review | Use this when the workflow should block or pause before risky work continues. |
| Understand what a run returns | Results and state | This page explains final output, resumable state, and next-turn surfaces. |
| Add hosted tools, function tools, or MCP | Using tools and Integrations and observability | Tool semantics live in the platform tools docs; SDK-specific MCP and tracing live here. |
| Inspect and improve runs | Integrations and observability and evaluate agent workflows | Use traces for debugging first, then move into evaluation loops. |
| Build a voice-first workflow | Voice agents | Use the SDK’s voice pipeline and realtime agent patterns. |
Use the SDK track when your server owns orchestration, tool execution, state, and approvals. That path is the best fit when you want:
- typed application code in TypeScript or Python
- direct control over tools, MCP servers, and runtime behavior
- custom storage or server-managed conversation strategies
- tight integration with existing product logic or infrastructure
A typical SDK reading order is:
- Start with Quickstart to get one working run on screen.
- Use Agent definitions and Models and providers to shape one specialist cleanly.
- Continue to Running agents, Orchestration and handoffs, and Guardrails and human review as the workflow grows more complex.
- Use Results and state and Integrations and observability when application logic depends on the run object or deeper visibility into behavior.