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OpenAIAgent Framework

OpenAI Agents SDK

OpenAI's MIT-licensed SDK runs agents with tools, handoffs, guardrails, sessions, approvals, MCP tools, and tracing inside your own service. It calls OpenAI models through the Responses API by default, reaches other models through beta adapters, and bills at OpenAI API token prices.

The 30-Second Take

Pick the OpenAI Agents SDK if your agents run on OpenAI models and need handoffs and approvals, with no graph framework.

The small MIT-licensed library asks little of your team to learn. Harvey builds its agentic legal search evals on its traces, and Coinbase's AgentKit builds on it.

Best fit
Agents on OpenAI models with handoffs, guardrails, and approvals, run inside the team's own Python or TypeScript service.
Main constraint
Built around OpenAI's Responses API: traces, with model and tool inputs and outputs, go to OpenAI by default, and other models run through beta adapters.
First move
Run one agent with a pinned SDK version and an explicit model, replace or turn off the default trace exporter, and measure latency and cost per run.

Why

Watch where traces go: prompts and tool data go to OpenAI by default, and other models run through beta adapters. You still own hosting, session storage, trace export and version pinning.

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners−17 Mixed

46 practitioners, 75 sources reviewed, Updated Nov 1, 2026How this is measured

Read the GILD Review
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Operating stack
AI Application Platform

Comparisons

How does OpenAI Agents SDK compare with the alternatives?

See all 4 comparisons

  1. OpenAI Agents SDK vs LangGraph

    • Agent Frameworks

    Pick the OpenAI Agents SDK when the model can drive a loop with agents, handoffs, guardrails, and sessions, with tracing built in. Pick LangGraph when your code should control each step through an explicit graph with checkpoints and human interrupts across model vendors.

  2. OpenAI Agents SDK vs AI SDK

    • Agent Frameworks

    Pick OpenAI's Agents SDK for OpenAI-first agents with handoffs, guardrails, and tracing to OpenAI's dashboard. Pick the AI SDK to keep every model vendor on one TypeScript code path with UI hooks; the Agents SDK reaches other models through an AI SDK adapter.

  3. OpenAI Agents SDK vs CrewAI

    • Agent Frameworks

    No named team on record runs both. Pick the OpenAI Agents SDK for a small loop on OpenAI models whose traces feed your evals, as Harvey's do; pick CrewAI for role-based crews on any vendor's models with a managed platform, as PwC and Gelato describe.

Operator Insights

What are teams learning from building on OpenAI Agents SDK and running it in production?

See all 10 operator accounts

Buying and deployment

What a team building on it should verify before production traffic grows.

Sourced from OpenAI documentation

How you buy it

Free, MIT license

Model calls bill to an OpenAI API account, with gpt-5.6-luna as the default model.

Source 1, OpenAI, openai-agents-python on GitHub: openai-agents-python on GitHubSource 2, OpenAI, Agents SDK models: Agents SDK models

Details

The SDK is free and open source under the MIT license, installed with pip install openai-agents. There is no SDK plan or fee: model calls bill to the OpenAI API account whose API key the SDK uses. The default model is gpt-5.6-luna when an agent sets none, and OPENAI_DEFAULT_MODEL or RunConfig changes it.

Cost drivers

US$0.20 in, US$1.20 out

Per million tokens on gpt-5.6-luna, pay-as-you-go. Build tier usage caps at US$500 a month.

Source 3, OpenAI, gpt-5.6-luna model page: gpt-5.6-luna model pageSource 4, OpenAI, OpenAI API rate limits and usage tiers: OpenAI API rate limits and usage tiers

Details

Tokens on every turn, tool call, and handoff, billed pay-as-you-go per million tokens at OpenAI API prices. The default gpt-5.6-luna lists US$0.20 per million input tokens and US$1.20 per million output tokens. Usage tiers rise with total credit purchases, and each tier caps monthly usage, at US$500 a month on Build.

Where it runs

Your own process

Python 3.10 or newer. Other models run through beta LiteLLM and Any-LLM adapters.

Source 1, OpenAI, openai-agents-python on GitHub: openai-agents-python on GitHubSource 2, OpenAI, Agents SDK models: Agents SDK models

Details

In your own process, on Python 3.10 or newer. For OpenAI models OpenAI recommends its Responses model, which calls the Responses API. Other models run through the LiteLLM and Any-LLM adapters, which OpenAI supports on a best-effort, beta basis.

What to verify

5,000 RPM on Build

gpt-5.6-luna is not supported on the Free tier. Test each model you plan to run.

Source 3, OpenAI, gpt-5.6-luna model page: gpt-5.6-luna model pageSource 2, OpenAI, Agents SDK models: Agents SDK modelsSource 5, trust.openai.com, OpenAI Trust Portal: OpenAI Trust PortalSource 6, OpenAI, OpenAI API data controls: OpenAI API data controls

Details

gpt-5.6-luna is not supported on the Free usage tier and starts at 5,000 RPM on the Build tier. OpenAI says its products support SAML. OpenAI says its API platform products are ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, and 27701 certified. OpenAI's Admin and Audit Logs API lets API organization owners and admins modify and document user permissions to support audit logging. By default, OpenAI keeps abuse monitoring logs for up to 30 days, with longer retention in cases OpenAI lists.

Signals

What is the current evidence saying about OpenAI Agents SDK?

Harvey evaluates its agentic legal search on the OpenAI Agents SDK's traces, small companies such as Lark and Octagon AI ship products on it, and builders praise its few primitives while filing runtime defects. Each finding links to its public source.

Whose sources count

Practitioner sentiment, all practitioners

−17 Mixed net

of 50 sources that take a side, each author counted once.

How this figure is made

Teams and leaders have 7 accounts; GILD prints their sentiment from 20.

Current sentiment

Positive, mixed and negative sources

The score counts them as 11 positive, 16 mixed and 19 negative votes, one per author.

Builders praise the small set of primitives more than any other point, and named teams from Harvey to Lark build on it. Runtime defects lead the concerns, most of them closed GitHub issues. Teams that chose the SDK for its size report building session storage, sandboxes, and trace export around it.

Build one pilot agent to measure the glue code and debugging time the framework adds.

Evidence field. All 75 sources, one mark each.

Arrange by

Each mark is one source: positive, mixed, negative, no opinion stated, or documentation (not counted).

By sentiment, All practitioners. Every source GILD read, grouped as the field draws it.
GroupSourcesPositiveMixedNegativeNo opinion stated and not counted in the scoreDocumentation, checked and not counted
Positive13130000
Mixed16016000
Negative21002100
Not counted900090
Documentation16000016
Every source GILD read, by the quarter it was published, as the field's time axis counts it. Documentation is dated by the day it was checked.
QuarterSources
Q1 20252
Q2 20257
Q3 20255
Q4 20258
Q1 20263
Q2 20267
Q3 202614
Q4 202613
Documentation, checked16

By sentiment

16 documentation pages check facts and are not counted.

Hover a mark for a quick look, click it or press Enter to open its source.Tap a mark to open its source, then step to its neighbors with Previous and Next.

What practitioners praise

Top praise of 2. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks praise it.

  1. A Small Set of PrimitivesAll 11 sources on it praise it

Most common concerns

Top concern of 5. Each mark is a source on it; filled marks raise it.

  1. Runtime Defects in ProductionAll 14 sources on it raise it as a concern
All 75 sources behind these findings
  1. OpenAI Agents SDK (Python) overviewOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  2. Agents SDK (Python): ModelsOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  3. Agents SDK (TypeScript): ModelsOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  4. Agents SDK (TypeScript): AI SDK extensionOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  5. Agents SDK (Python): TracingOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  6. Agents SDK (Python): SessionsOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  7. Agents SDK (Python): GuardrailsOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  8. Agents SDK (Python): Human in the loopOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  9. Agents SDK (Python): Release processOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  10. gpt-5.6-luna model pageOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  11. OpenAI API usage and spend limitsOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  12. OpenAI: The next evolution of the Agents SDKOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  13. OpenAI: Introducing AgentKit (update of June 3, 2026)OpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  14. Introducing the Agents APIOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  15. OpenAI status historyOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  16. openai-agents-python on GitHubOpenAI (Official OpenAI Agents SDK documentation and OpenAI platform pages), Product documentation, checked Oct 28, 2026
  17. Approval decision transfers across runs when call ID is reusedTardfyou, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Approval-gated tools, tested on 0.23.1), GitHub issue, published Oct 24, 2026
  18. Observing AI Agents with OpenTelemetrysilksong_when, Reddit poster who works at SigNoz (self-described: NBA question-answering agent instrumented with OpenTelemetry), Reddit post, published Oct 22, 2026
  19. docs(mcp): clarify client_session_timeout_seconds default (5s), npx/cli cold-start timeout, and document missing constructor optionsMuneebMalik244535, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: MCP servers started with npx), GitHub issue, published Oct 21, 2026
  20. Streamed run keeps calling the model and tools after its only stream_events() consumer stops outside the queue waitsushantsimpplr, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Streamed runs whose consumer stops early), GitHub issue, published Oct 17, 2026
  21. Tool-calling runs get quadratically slower: completed tool calls are re-fingerprinted every turndeadstrobe5, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Long tool-calling runs), GitHub issue, published Oct 16, 2026
  22. Follow-up to #5330: recommended guardrail pattern verified on 0.23.1 (results + one output_info papercut)PHM-Audit, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Guardrails that block out-of-plan tool calls, on 0.23.1), GitHub issue, published Oct 12, 2026
  23. ShellTool: empty ShellResult fabricates stdout "(no output)" in the model-visible shell_call_outputBlueX888, GitHub profile lists Beijing University of Technology (self-described: Shell tool runs for commands that succeed and print nothing), GitHub issue, published Oct 11, 2026
  24. aisdk(): parallel tool results become separate tool messages, which breaks Geminiigorbereza, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Gemini through the TypeScript AI SDK adapter), GitHub issue, published Oct 8, 2026
  25. GPT-6 models get no default reasoning settings leading to 400 on /v1/chat/completions with function toolsLoïc Minaudier, GitHub profile lists Datadog (self-described: An agent on GPT-6 Sol with function tools, called through Chat Completions behind an OpenAI-compatible gateway), GitHub issue, published Oct 8, 2026
  26. Adding your own trace collector to the OpenAI Agents SDKAndrew (gocronk), heavy AI user on X (self-described: Keeping agent traces in the team's own system), Post on X, published Oct 7, 2026
  27. RedisSession fails on Redis Cluster: add_items/clear_session raise AttributeError ('ClusterPipeline' has no 'raise_first_error')sushantsimpplr, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Sessions stored on a Redis Cluster), GitHub issue, published Oct 6, 2026
  28. Why I combined fetching and extraction in one agent toolOkShirt9372, Reddit poster in r/AI_Agents (self-described: Lead-generation agent built with the SDK and ZenRows), Reddit post, published Oct 6, 2026
  29. First hands-on experience with the OpenAI Agents SDKChetan Wadhwa, developer on X (self-described: First hands-on build with the SDK), Post on X, published Oct 3, 2026
  30. Non-streaming Chat Completions run fails when provider usage has null token countsCheolhee Lee, AI full-stack developer at a B2B AI software company (self-described: Agents on an OpenAI-compatible server through the Chat Completions model), GitHub issue, published Sep 28, 2026
  31. Voice: add_audio(None) doesn't end the STT session, so the pipeline waits ~1000s for EVENT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUTkosesena, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Voice pipeline with streaming speech-to-text), GitHub issue, published Sep 27, 2026
  32. Agent.as_tool() nested subagent runs never hit prompt cache, even with byte-identical instructions/tools/prompt_cache_keyprajwal-bik-ai, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Top-level agent with nested subagents attached as tools), GitHub issue, published Sep 18, 2026
  33. BackendSpanExporter drops the whole batch on HTTP 429 instead of retrying with Retry-Aftercoderdailyone, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Trace export under rate limiting), GitHub issue, published Sep 14, 2026
  34. Comment on: OpenAI Agents APIbaalimago, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Company agent with sandbox, Slack, and knowledge-base integrations), Hacker News comment, published Sep 11, 2026
  35. Comment on: OpenAI Agents APIbaalimago, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Company agent with sandbox, Slack, and knowledge-base integrations), Hacker News comment, published Sep 11, 2026
  36. Comment on: OpenAI Agents APImaxdo, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Discussion of OpenAI's hosted Agents API launch), Hacker News comment, published Sep 10, 2026
  37. Comment on: OpenAI Agents APIjumploops, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Discussion of OpenAI's hosted Agents API launch), Hacker News comment, published Sep 10, 2026
  38. Measured findings - agentic-arenacode-with-rashid, author of the open-source agentic-arena benchmark (self-described: Scripted-model comparison of agent frameworks against a hand-rolled loop), Open-source benchmark site, published Sep 8, 2026
  39. Responses terminal failures drop provider-reported usageRongJie G (CorgiBoyG), GitHub profile lists Xidian University (self-described: Token accounting on runs whose Responses call ends incomplete or failed), GitHub issue, published Sep 7, 2026
  40. AnyLLM and LiteLLM return successful empty output for truncated responsesCoralGarden52, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Chat Completions models through the Any-LLM and LiteLLM adapters), GitHub issue, published Sep 6, 2026
  41. Deferred interrupted-turn session items are never persisted when an approval resume goes through next_step_run_againJulio de la Calle (dixso), GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: An agent with output guardrails and a tool that needs approval, resumed after the decision), GitHub issue, published Sep 2, 2026
  42. OpenAI Agents SDK: using tool descriptions to route search vs. live-page retrievalInsideDebt6345, Reddit poster in r/AI_Agents (self-described: Two-tool agent with web search and a page fetcher), Reddit post, published Aug 31, 2026
  43. Comment on: Launch HN: Hoplite (YC S26)asdev, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Team with its own in-house cloud development environment), Hacker News comment, published Aug 3, 2026
  44. Claude Agent SDK vs OpenAI Agents SDK: I Built the Same Agent in BothElshad Karimov, builds production agents for clients (self-described: Same lead research agent built in the Claude Agent SDK and the OpenAI Agents SDK), Personal newsletter (Substack), published Jun 13, 2026
  45. Comment on: Ask HK: How are you building AI apps today?sibidharan, Hacker News commenter (self-described: EdTech apps with AI learning and evaluation tools), Hacker News comment, published Jun 1, 2026
  46. Comment on: Ask HK: How are you building AI apps today?sibidharan, Hacker News commenter (self-described: EdTech apps with AI learning and evaluation tools), Hacker News comment, published May 29, 2026
  47. OpenAI Agents SDK Sandboxes: Which one should you choose?pavitrabhalla, founder of Superserve, a sandbox company (self-described: Compared the sandbox options the SDK supports), Hacker News comment, published May 20, 2026
  48. OpenAI Agents SDK Sandboxes: Which Provider Should You Actually Use?Pavitra Bhalla, founder of Superserve, a sandbox company (self-described: Comparison of the sandbox options the SDK supports), Company blog, published May 19, 2026
  49. Comment on: Claude Managed Agentssuncemoje, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Has run agents on the SDK for a while), Hacker News comment, published Apr 9, 2026
  50. Comment on: Ask HN: Learning resources for building AI agents?stochtinkerer, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Advice to a developer starting to build agents), Hacker News comment, published Apr 5, 2026
  51. Show HN: Runtime Use, run agents in any sandboxVijit and Jack, builders of Runtime Use and Lark (Show HN authors) (self-described: Lark's agents generate end-to-end tests inside sandboxes), Hacker News post, published Mar 18, 2026
  52. Comment on: OpenAI's unit economicssenko, Hacker News commenter (self-described: OpenAI's product strategy and API lock-in), Hacker News comment, published Jan 29, 2026
  53. Compaction introduces post-output latency: stream_events() doesn't terminate after streaming output completesFilimoa, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Streamed runs with a compaction session), GitHub issue, published Jan 20, 2026
  54. Memory leak: Agent references not released between turnsruskaruma, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Long-running workflows that run an agent in a loop), GitHub issue, published Dec 20, 2025
  55. Comment on: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustrationquleap, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Comparing Google's ADK with lighter agent frameworks), Hacker News comment, published Dec 18, 2025
  56. How Agentic Search Unlocks Legal Research Intelligence at HarveyLysia Li, Varun Nair, Aaron Stern, Pablo Felgueres, Calvin Qi and Philip Cerles, Harvey engineering (self-described: Evaluating Harvey's agentic legal search), Company engineering blog, published Dec 10, 2025
  57. Traces are silently dropped in long-running workerskiansdi, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Agents run in Celery and FastAPI background workers), GitHub issue, published Nov 29, 2025
  58. Resilience mechanism Openai/ LiteLLMdast-draftwise, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Moving an agent from OpenAI models to Claude through LiteLLM), GitHub issue, published Nov 6, 2025
  59. Item with id rs_ not foundDhanush Kumar Shankar (shankar-dh), GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Three agents on GPT-5 with handoffs and the default SQLiteSession), GitHub issue, published Oct 31, 2025
  60. Comment on: Inkeep's agent builder launchd0100, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Choosing between Inkeep and the Agents SDK for an agent product), Hacker News comment, published Oct 16, 2025
  61. Comment on: Ask HN: Do you roll your own agent or use a framework?jamesbriggs, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Team that moved from frameworks to its own async framework), Hacker News comment, published Oct 8, 2025
  62. Unacceptable latency with 4.1sibblegp, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Client apps that run agents on GPT-4.1), GitHub issue, published Sep 4, 2025
  63. Comment on: Open SWE by LangChainNeutralCrane, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Comparing LangChain's products with alternatives), Hacker News comment, published Aug 8, 2025
  64. Why have agents (or GPT 4.1) slowed down so much?sibblegp, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Client apps that run agents on GPT-4.1), GitHub issue, published Jul 25, 2025
  65. Comment on: OpenAI-agents-Redis: Native OpenAI Agents SDK session management using Redisj0selit0, Hacker News commenter (author of openai-agents-redis) (self-described: Production app whose agents run on several instances), Hacker News comment, published Jul 22, 2025
  66. Agent run with previous_response_id fails - No tool output found for function callmarkns, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Multi-turn runs chained with previous_response_id), GitHub issue, published Jul 11, 2025
  67. Comment on: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or pluginsstavros, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Personal assistant with access to a calendar), Hacker News comment, published May 27, 2025
  68. LiteLLM + Gemini 2.5 Pro: cached_tokens=None crashes Agents SDK with Pydantic int-validation errorruidazeng, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Gemini 2.5 Pro through the LiteLLM adapter), GitHub issue, published May 26, 2025
  69. AI VC Simulations Built on OpenAI's Agents SDKag_21, Octagon AI (Show HN author) (self-described: Octagon VC Agents, an open-source MCP server), Hacker News comment, published Apr 26, 2025
  70. Comment on: Show HN: Rowboatramnique, Rowboat co-founder (Show HN author) (self-described: Rowboat, an open-source IDE for multi-agent systems), Hacker News comment, published Apr 22, 2025
  71. Optimize latency for parallel agent runs with streamingAdhish Thite, GenAI engineer (GitHub profile) (self-described: Three translation agents run in parallel, then a picker agent, behind a streaming UI), GitHub issue, published Apr 14, 2025
  72. Long response times when using multiple agents with agents_as_toolsPaulSGit1, GitHub user filing an issue (self-described: Orchestrator on GPT-4.5 with seven agents as tools), GitHub issue, published Apr 2, 2025
  73. Comment on: Open Deep Researchhackfather, Hacker News commenter (self-described: Open-source deep research agent built on the SDK at launch), Hacker News comment, published Apr 2, 2025
  74. Duplicate traces through OpenAI agents SDKKarolis Mariunas (kmariunas), Developer (issue author) (self-described: Agents SDK app with handoffs, traced to LangSmith), GitHub issue, published Mar 31, 2025
  75. feat: python openai agents sdk supportCarson Roscoe (CarsonRoscoe), contributor to Coinbase Developer Platform's AgentKit (self-described: AgentKit, Coinbase Developer Platform's toolkit for giving agents crypto wallets), GitHub pull request, published Mar 11, 2025

Mar 2025 to Oct 2026.

59 sources from practitioners, by month and sentiment.

The full readExplore all OpenAI Agents SDK Signals2 praise themes, 5 concerns, 3 points of agreement and 1 disagreement across all three groups, with all 75 sources open to inspect.

Where It Fits

Where does OpenAI Agents SDK belong in the stack?

Open Where It Fits: the Stack Field and the full map

OpenAI Agents SDK is Core across Build, supports Operate, and touches Model, Data, and Evaluate.

Business area
Product & Engineering
Function
Software Development
Operating stack
AI Application Platform
Primary role
Agent Framework SDK
OpenAI Agents SDK beside the rest of its stackThe Stack Field, every product on every layer
FootprintOpenAI Agents SDK across the AI Application Platform stack. Bar height is its role on each layer.

  1. Model

    1. Model APIs: Touches

      Model APIs, touches. The SDK calls OpenAI models through the Responses API by default, or the Chat Completions API, and every call is billed at the selected model's OpenAI API token price.

    2. Model gateway: Touches

      Model gateway, touches. LiteLLM and Any-LLM adapters in Python and the AI SDK adapter in TypeScript reach models from other vendors, and OpenAI calls the Python adapters best-effort beta; routing and fallback across vendors stay with a gateway.

  2. Build

    1. Orchestration: Core

      Orchestration, core. This is the SDK's primary role: Runner runs agents with tools, handoffs exposed to the model as transfer_to tools, agents as tools, guardrails, sessions, and approvals that pause and serialize a run, in Python and TypeScript.

    2. Tool use: Supports

      Tool use, supports. Agents call Python or TypeScript function tools, OpenAI's hosted web search and file search tools, and remote MCP servers, and tools can require approval before they run. The systems those tools reach stay with the team.

  3. Data

    1. Retrieval: Touches

      Retrieval, touches. Agents can call OpenAI's hosted file search and web search tools or the team's own retrieval functions; indexing and search over company data stay with OpenAI vector stores or a retrieval product.

  4. Evaluate

    1. Evaluation: Touches

      Evaluation, touches. Runs report usage, and traces record each model call, tool call, handoff, and guardrail for review; OpenAI is winding down its Agent Builder and Evals products on November 30, 2026, so datasets and graders stay with an evaluation tool.

  5. Operate

    1. Observability: Supports

      Observability, supports. Tracing is on by default and sends runs to OpenAI's Traces dashboard; set_trace_processors replaces that exporter with Langfuse, Pydantic Logfire, Datadog, or others, and organizations under Zero Data Retention cannot use the built-in tracing.

    2. Cloud deployment: Touches

      Cloud deployment, touches. The SDK runs in the team's own process. Sandbox agents use a local Unix or Docker workspace or hosted sandboxes from Blaxel, Cloudflare, Daytona, E2B, Modal, Runloop, and Vercel, and the team runs and sizes the hosts.

    3. Guardrails: Supports

      Guardrails, supports. OpenAI Agents SDK input, output, and tool guardrails validate agent data and can raise tripwires. Tripwires halt execution or replace rejected tool output with configured text.

Market mapThe layers OpenAI Agents SDK covers, and who else owns each one.

  1. Orchestration & agent frameworks

    CoreBuild

  2. Tool use & integrations

    SupportsBuild

  3. Observability & tracing

    SupportsOperate

  4. Guardrails & AI security

    SupportsOperate

    • Prisma AIRS
    • NeMo Guardrails

  5. Model APIs

    TouchesModel

4 more layers on the full map. Core, Supports and Touches describe coverage. They say nothing about quality.

More on OpenAI Agents SDK

  1. GILD ReviewGILD's evaluation, with the buying facts
  2. Research3 pieces
  3. Guides1 guide
  4. Operator Insights10 operator accounts
  5. Where It FitsOn the AI Application Platform stack
  6. Related Products6 products