#Microsoft Agent Framework

Governance with the Agent Governance Toolkit

OWASP Agentic Top 10 coverage with YAML policy files, two API surfaces, and a metric bridge that shows policy denials in Grafana.

Refactor: from rolled-our-own to MAF-native

I built memory, communication, security, governance, and evals from scratch first. Then I deleted most of it and used the Microsoft Agent Framework-native packages. Here is the audit table and what survived.

Multi-turn evals from first principles

Single-turn evals check one decision. Multi-turn evals check the whole trajectory. A Python harness with three evaluators, an offline test suite, and the judge prompt that actually works.

Observability for multi-agent: traces and metrics

OpenTelemetry through the Microsoft Agent Framework's configure_otel_providers, custom workflow spans, custom metrics for runs/duration/agent selection, Jaeger + Prometheus + Grafana wiring, and the set-once latch gotcha.

A2A: when the workflow IS the broker

The reference architecture distinguishes request-based and message-driven agent communication. For in-process orchestration, the workflow IS the broker — and A2A is just the wire format.

Memory done right with MAF

AgentSession is short-term memory. MemoryContextProvider + MemoryFileStore is long-term memory. Mem0 is long-term memory for serious workloads. The boundary that matters and how to implement each.

Agent registry as a project-local convention

The Microsoft Agent Framework deliberately does not ship an agent registry. Here is why that is the right call, and what to build as a project-local convention when you need one.

Ollama as the default LLM for enterprise-shaped systems

PROVIDER=ollama, granite4.1:3b, zero API keys, no Azure account. How to make a multi-agent project that demonstrates enterprise patterns without requiring enterprise infrastructure.

Five MAF orchestration shapes — adding Group Chat and...

The first ten posts treated the Microsoft Agent Framework as having four orchestration patterns. The official docs say five. Here are the two I missed — Group Chat and Magentic — and why they matter.

Four orchestration patterns in MAF — and when to pick each

Sequential, Concurrent, Handoff, and Custom WorkflowBuilder. Four shapes the Microsoft Agent Framework ships out of the box, when to pick each, and the gotchas that cost me a day.

The 12-chapter reference architecture, in 102 Python files

Microsoft published a 12-chapter reference architecture for multi-agent systems and a separate framework — the Microsoft Agent Framework — to build them. Here is what the 102 Python files actually contain and how they map to the chapters.

Lessons from Converting 18 Agents in 90 Days

The patterns that worked, the traps we fell into, and what we'd do differently.

What worked, what was hard, and what we'd do differently. Real numbers: 18 agents, 90 days, 5 governance policies, 4 provider swaps.

Deployment & A2A: From ADK's Web Deploy to Microsoft Agent Framework's Scalable Architecture

Running agents on Cloud Run, exposing via A2A, and wiring into production systems.

Deploy Microsoft Agent Framework multi-agent systems on Cloud Run with A2A agent-to-agent communication, autoscaling, load balancing, and production observability dashboards.

Callbacks and Middleware: Porting ADK Hooks to Microsoft Agent Framework's Decorator Pattern

How to instrument agents for observability, error handling, and audit logging.

Migrate ADK callbacks to Microsoft Agent Framework composable middleware: decorators for audit logging, retry with backoff, token budget enforcement, and OpenTelemetry tracing.

Provider Abstraction: From Gemini-Only to Swappable LLMs

How to port ADK's model hard-codes to Microsoft Agent Framework's provider factory pattern.

Zero-code LLM provider swaps across environments: Ollama for dev, OpenAI for staging, Azure Foundry for prod. Same agents, different models.

Tool Wrapping: From ADK Functions to Microsoft Agent Framework Governed Tools

How to port tools, add policy enforcement, and integrate OPA.

Migrate ADK functions to Microsoft Agent Framework governed tools with policy enforcement, DLP scanning, approval gates, and OPA integration for production agent systems.

Token Exchange Patterns: Porting Multi-Turn State from ADK to Microsoft Agent Framework

How conversation threads replace session state; how to track token usage across agent chains.

Sessions to threads: porting multi-turn state from ADK to Microsoft Agent Framework. Token budgeting, long-term memory, and conversation audit trails.

The Executor Pattern: ADK→Microsoft Agent Framework Conversion for Agentic Control Flow

How to port ADK's orchestration callbacks to Microsoft Agent Framework builders without losing control.

How to port ADK's orchestration callbacks to Microsoft Agent Framework builders without losing control. The executor pattern: you own the loop.

Why We Migrated from Google ADK to Microsoft Agent Framework

The philosophy, trade-offs, and what we learned converting 18+ agents in 3 months.

The philosophy, trade-offs, and what we learned converting 18+ agents in 3 months. Provider abstraction as the foundation for portable agents.

Multi-Agent Systems in 5 Interfaces: A Microsoft Agent...

Five interfaces hold the whole platform together. The 30-line orchestrator closure that makes the rest of the architecture testable, auditable, and safe to evolve.

Agentic architecture on the Microsoft Agent Framework —...

Microsoft's Multi-Agent Reference Architecture in Go. Protocol, registry, bus, governance, orchestration, observability, evaluation — and how the seven hold each other up.