What is an agent? While conventional software enables users to streamline and automate workflows, agents are able to perform the same workflows on the users’ behalf with a high degree of independence. Agents are systems that independently accomplish tasks on your behalt. Aworkflow is a sequence of steps that must be executed to meet the user’s goal, whether that's resolving a customer service issue, booking a restaurant reservation, committing a code change, or generating a report. Applications that integrate LLMs but don’t use them to control workflow execution—think simple chatbots, single-turn LLMs, or sentiment classifiers—are not agents. More concretely, an agent possesses core characteristics that allow it to act reliably and consistently on behalf of a user: ot It leverages an LLM to manage workflow execution and make decisions. It recognizes when a workflow is complete and can proactively correct its actions if needed. In case of failure, it can halt execution and transfer control back to the user. 02 Ithas access to various tools to interact with external systems—both to gather context and to take actions—and dynamically selects the appropriate tools depending on the workflow’s current state, always operating within clearly defined guardrails. 4 Apractcal guide to building agentsWhen should you build an agent? Building agents requires rethinking how your systems make decisions and handle complexity. Unlike conventional automation, agents are uniquely suited to workflows where traditional deterministic and rule-based approaches fall short. Consider the example of payment fraud analysis. A traditional rules engine works like a checklist, flagging transactions based on preset criteria. In contrast, an LLM agent functions more like a seasoned investigator, evaluating context, considering subtle patterns, and identifying suspicious activity even when clear-cut rules aren’t violated. This nuanced reasoning capability is exactly what enables agents to manage complex, ambiguous situations effectively.‘As you evaluate where agents can add value, prioritize workflows that have previously resisted automation, especially where traditional methods encounter friction: o1 Complex decision-making: Workflows involving nuanced judgment, exceptions, or context-sensitive decisions, for example refund approval in customer service workflows. o2 Difficult-to-maintain _ Systems that have become unwieldy due to extensive and rules: intricate rulesets, making updates costly or error-prone, for example performing vendor security reviews. 03 Heavy reliance on Scenarios that involve interpreting natural language, unstructured data: extracting meaning from documents, or interacting with users conversationally, for example processing a home insurance claim. Before committing to building an agent, validate that your use case can meet these criteria clearly. Otherwise, a deterministic solution may suffice. practical guide to bulding agentsAgent design foundations In its most fundamental form, an agent consists of three core components’ o Model The LLM powering the agent’s reasoning and decision-making o2 Tools External functions or APIs the agent can use to take action 03 Instructions Explicit guidelines and guardrails defining how the agent behaves Here’s what this looks like in code when using OpenAl’s Agents SDK. You can also implement the same concepts using your preferred library or building directly from scratch. Python 1 weather_agent = Agent( 2 name="Weather agent", 3 instructions="You are a helpful agent who can talk to users about the 4 weather.", 5 tools=[get_weather], , Apractcal guide to building agentsSelecting your models Different models have different strengths and tradeoffs related to task complexity, latency, and cost. As we'll see in the next section on Orchestration, you might want to consider using a variety of models for different tasks in the workflow. Not every task requires the smartest model—a simple retrieval or intent classification task may be handled by a smaller, faster model, while harder tasks like deciding whether to approve a refund may benefit from a more capable model. An approach that works well is to build your agent prototype with the most capable model for every task to establish a performance baseline. From there, try swapping in smaller models to see if they still achieve acceptable results. This way, you don’t prematurely limit the agent's abilities, and you can diagnose where smaller models succeed or fail. In summary, the principles for choosing a model are simple: ot Set up evals to establish a performance baseline 02 Focus on meeting your accuracy target with the best models available 03 Optimize for cost and latency by replacing larger models with smaller ones where possible You can find a comprehensive guide to selecting OpenAl models here. 8 Apractcal guide to building agentsDefining tools Tools extend your agent’s capabilities by using APIs from underlying applications or systems. For legacy systems without APIs, agents can rely on computer-use models to interact directly with those applications and systems through web and application Uls—just as a human would. Each tool should have a standardized definition, enabling flexible, many-to-many relationships between tools and agents. Well-documented, thoroughly tested, and reusable tools improve discoverability, simplify version management, and prevent redundant definitions. Broadly speaking, agents need three types of tools: Type Examples Data Enable agents to retrieve context and Query transaction databases or information necessary for executing systems like CRMs, read PDF the workflow. documents, or search the web. Action Enable agents to interact with Send emails and texts, update a CRM systems to take actions such as record, hand-off a customer service adding new information to ticket to a human. databases, updating records, or sending messages. Orchestration Agents themselves can serve as tools. Refund agent, Research agent, for other agents—see the Manager Pattern in the Orchestration section. Writing agent. practical guide to bulding agentsFor example, here’s how you would equip the agent defined above with a series of tools when using the Agents SDK: Python 1 from agents import Agent, WebSearchTool, function_tool 2 @function_tool 3 def save_results(output): 4 db.insert(<*output": output, "timestamp": datetime. time()}) 5 return "File saved" 6 7 search_agent = Agent( 8 name="Search agent", 8 instructions="Help the user search the internet and save results if 10 asked.", a tools={WebSearchTool(), save_results], 2) As the number of required tools increases, consider splitting tasks across multiple agents (see Orchestration). 10 practical guide to bulding agentsConfiguring instructions High-quality instructions are essential for any LLM-powered app, but especially critical for agents. Clear instructions reduce ambiguity and improve agent decision-making, resulting in smoother workflow execution and fewer errors. Best practices for agent instructions Use existing documents When creating routines, use existing operating procedures, support scripts, or policy documents to create LLM-friendly routines. In customer service for example, routines can roughly map to individual articles in your knowledge base. Prompt agents to break down tasks Providing smaller, clearer steps from dense resources helps minimize ambiguity and helps the model better follow instructions. Define clear actions Make sure every step in your routine corresponds to a specific action or output. For example, a step might instruct the agent to ask the user for their order number or to call an API to retrieve account details. Being explicit about the action (and even the wording of a user-facing message) leaves less room for errors in interpretation Capture edge cases Real-world interactions often create decision points such as how to proceed when a user provides incomplete information or asks an unexpected question. A robust routine anticipates common variations and includes instructions on how to handle them with conditional steps or branches such as an alternative step if a required piece of info is missing. Apractcal guide to building agentsYou can use advanced models, like of or 03-mini, to automatically generate instructions from existing documents. Here's a sample prompt illustrating this approach Unset 1 "You are an expert in writing instructions for an LLM agent, Convert the | following help center document into a clear set of instructions, written in a numbered list. The document will be a policy followed by an LLM. Ensure that there is no ambiguity, and that the instructions are written as directions for an agent. The help center document to convert is the following {{help_center_doc}}” 2 Apractcal guide to building agentsOrchestration With the foundational components in place, you can consider orchestration patterns to enable your agent to execute workflows effectively. While it’s tempting to immediately build a fully autonomous agent with complex architecture, customers typically achieve greater success with an incremental approach. In general, orchestration patterns fall into two categories: o1 Single-agent systems, where a single model equipped with appropriate tools and instructions executes workflows in a loop 02 Multi-agent systems, where workflow execution is distributed across multiple coordinated agents Let’s explore each pattern in detail. 8 practical guide to bulding agentsSingle-agent systems Asingle agent can handle many tasks by incrementally adding tools, keeping complexity manageable and simplifying evaluation and maintenance. Each new tool expands its capabilities without prematurely forcing you to orchestrate multiple agents. Instructions Every orchestration approach needs the concept of a ‘run’; typically implemented as a loop that lets agents operate until an exit condition is reached. Common exit conditions include tool calls, a certain structured output, errors, or reaching a maximum number of turns. 1“ practical guide to bulding agentsFor example, in the Agents SDK, agents are started using the Runner. run() method, which loops over the LLM until either: oO A final-output tool is invoked, defined by a specific output type 02 The model returns a response without any tool calls (e.g., a direct user message) Example usage: Python 1 Agents.run(agent, [UserMessage("What's the capital of the USA?")]) This concept of a while loop is central to the functioning of an agent. In multi-agent systems, as you'll see next, you can have a sequence of tool calls and handoffs between agents but allow the model to run multiple steps until an exit condition is met. An effective strategy for managing complexity without switching to a multi-agent framework is to use prompt templates. Rather than maintaining numerous individual prompts for distinct use cases, use a single flexible base prompt that accepts policy variables. This template approach adapts easily to various contexts, significantly simplifying maintenance and evaluation. As new use cases arise, you can update variables rather than rewriting entire workflows. Unset You are a call center agent. You are interacting with {{user_first_name}} who has been a member for {{user_tenure}}. The user's most common Complains are about <{user_complaint_categories}}. Greet the user, thank them for being a loyal customer, and answer any questions the user’ may have! 6 practical guide to bulding agentsWhen to consider creating multiple agents Our general recommendation is to maximize a single agent's capabilities first. More agents can provide intuitive separation of concepts, but can introduce additional complexity and overhead, 80 often a single agent with tools is sufficient. For many complex workflows, splitting up prompts and tools across multiple agents allows for improved performance and scalability. When your agents fail to follow complicated instructions or consistently select incorrect tools, you may need to further divide your system and introduce more distinct agents. Practical guidelines for splitting agents include: Complex logic When prompts contain many conditional statements (multiple if-then-else branches), and prompt templates get difficult to scale, consider dividing each logical segment across separate agents. Tool overload The issue isn’t solely the number of tools, but their similarity or overlap. Some implementations successfully manage more than 15 well-defined, distinct tools while others struggle with fewer than 10 overlapping tools. Use multiple agents if improving tool clarity by providing descriptive names, clear parameters, and detailed descriptions doesn’t improve performance. 6 practical guide to bulding agentsMulti-agent systems While multi-agent systems can be designed in numerous ways for specific workflows and requirements, our experience with customers highlights two broadly applicable categories: Manager (agents as tools) central “manager” agent coordinates multiple specialized agents via tool calls, each handling a specific task or domain. Decentralized (agents handing —- Multiple agents operate as peers, handing off tasks to one off to agents) another based on their specializations. Multi-agent systems can be modeled as graphs, with agents represented as nodes. In the manager pattern, edges represent tool calls whereas in the decentralized pattern, edges represent handoffs that transfer execution between agents. Regardless of the orchestration pattern, the same principles apply: keep components flexible, composable, and driven by clear, well-structured prompts. 7 Apractcal guide to building agentsManager pattern The manager pattern empowers a central LLM—the “manager"—to orchestrate a network of specialized agents seamlessly through tool calls. Instead of losing context or control, the manager intelligently delegates tasks to the right agent at the right time, effortlessly synthesizing the results into a cohesive interaction. This ensures a smooth, unified user experience, with specialized capabilities always available on-demand. This pattern is ideal for workflows where you only want one agent to control workflow execution and have access to the user. r \co-- . +) Translate ‘hello’ to > Task —( Spanish agent | Spanish, French and nd Italian for me! £ ; ») L Manager Ji Task ic French agent | oo = | Italian agent | L ) & yy p ) 18 practical guide to bulding agentsFor example, here’s how you could implement this pattern in the Agents SDK: Python 1 from agents import Agent, Runner 2 3 manager_agent = Agent( 4 name="manager_agent", 5 instructions=( 6 "You are a translation agent. You use the tools given to you to 7 translate." 8 “If asked for multiple translations, you call the relevant tools." 9 » 10 tools=[ 1 spanish_agent.as_tool( 12 tool_name="translate_to_spanish", 13 tool_description="Translate the user's message to Spanish", 14 » 15 french_agent.as_tool ( 16 tool_name="translate_to_french", wv tool_description="Translate the user's message to French", 18 », 19 italian_agent.as_tool( 20 tool_name="translate_to_italian", 21 tool_description="Translate the user's message to Italian", 2 » 23 a 19 practical guide to bulding agents24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32 32 33 asyne def main(): msg = input("Translate ‘hello’ to Spanish, French and Italian for ne!") orchestrator_output = await Runner. run( manager_agent, msg) for message in orchestrator_output.new_messages: print(f" - Translation step: {message.content}") Declarative vs non-declarative graphs Some frameworks are declarative, requiring developers to explicitly define every branch, loop, and conditional in the workflow upfront through graphs consisting of nodes (agents) and edges (deterministic or dynamic handoffs). While beneficial for visual clarity, this approach can quickly become cumbersome and challenging as workflows grow more dynamic and complex, often necessitating the learning of specialized domain-specific languages. In contrast, the Agents SDK adopts a more flexible, code-first approach. Developers can directly express workflow logic using familiar programming constructs without needing to pre-define the entire graph upfront, enabling more dynamic and adaptable agent orchestration. 20 practical guide to bulding agentsDecentralized pattern In a decentralized pattern, agents can ‘handoff’ workflow execution to one another. Handoffs are a one way transfer that allow an agent to delegate to another agent. In the Agents SDK, a handoff is a type of tool, or function. If an agent calls a handoff function, we immediately start execution on that new agent that was handed off to while also transferring the latest conversation state. This pattern involves using many agents on equal footing, where one agent can directly hand off control of the workflow to another agent. This is optimal when you don’t need a single agent maintaining central control or synthesis—instead allowing each agent to take over execution and interact with the user as needed. Issues and Repairs Where is my order? Sales On its way! « Orders 2 practical guide to bulding agentsFor example, here’s how you'd implement the decentralized pattern using the Agents SDK for a customer service workflow that handles both sales and support: Python 1 from agents import Agent, Runner 2 3 technical_support_agent = Agent( 4 name="Technical Support Agent", 5 instructions=( 6 "You provide expert assistance with resolving technical issues, 7 system outages, or product troubleshooting.” 8 De 9 tools=[search_knowledge_base] 10 ) a 12 sales_assistant_agent = Agent( 13 name="Sales Assistant Agent", vy instructions=( 18 "You help enterprise clients browse the product catalog, recommend 16 suitable solutions, and facilitate purchase transactions 17 Vy, 18 tools=L[initiate_purchase_order] 19) 20 21 order_management_agent = Agent( 22 name="Order Management Agent", 23 instructions=( 24 “You assist clients with inquiries regarding order tracking, 25 delivery schedules, and processing returns or refunds." 2 Apractcal guide to building agents26 27 28 29 20 a1 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 4a 42 DD tools=[track_order_status, initiate_refund_process] ) triage_agent = Agent( name=Triage Agent", instructions="You act as the first point of contact, assessing customer queries and directing them promptly to the correct specialized agent.", handoffs=I technical_support_agent, sales_assistant_agent, order_management_agent], ) await Runner. run( triage_agent, input("Could you please provide an update on the delivery timeline for our recent purchase?") ) In the above example, the initial user message is sent to triage_agent. Recognizing that the input concerns a recent purchase, the t iage_agent would invoke a handoff to the order_management_agent, transferring control to it. This pattern is especially effective for scenarios like conversation triage, or whenever you prefer specialized agents to fully take over certain tasks without the original agent needing to remain involved. Optionally, you can equip the second agent with a handoff back to the original agent, allowing it to transfer control again if necessary. 23 practical guide to bulding agents