The Microsoft Agent Framework Harness is now released
5 hours ago
- The agent harness is a runtime scaffolding that turns a language model into an agent capable of tool calling, multi-step tasks, memory, and autonomous execution.
- Agent Framework provides a ready-made, batteries-included harness for Python and .NET, with sensible defaults for features like function invocation, history persistence, context compaction, planning, memory, skills, web search, approvals, and telemetry.
- Developers only need to supply a chat client, instructions, and custom tools; the harness handles the rest of the agentic pipeline.
- Example agents include research assistants that plan and execute tasks, data-processing agents with approval-gated file tools, and domain-specific assistants like a personal-finance 'claw'.
- The harness can be used with a single call (e.g., `client.AsHarnessAgent()` in .NET or `create_harness_agent()` in Python) to immediately get a fully functional agent.
- Upcoming opt-in features include background agents, file access, looping, and shell tooling, which are not yet released but available for feedback.