OpenAI Agents SDK
Project record
The OpenAI Agents SDK is an open-source framework from OpenAI for building multi-agent workflows from agents, tools, handoffs, guardrails, and sessions, with built-in tracing. OpenAI describes it as a production-ready upgrade of its earlier Swarm experiment. The Python SDK has a separate JavaScript/TypeScript counterpart.15
- Repository: Repository (Python) (external site: github.com)
- Repository: Repository (JavaScript/TypeScript) (external site: github.com)
- Documentation: Documentation (external site: openai.github.io)
- License: LICENSE (Python) (external site: github.com)
- Release notes: Reviewed release (Python) (external site: github.com)
Availability and license
Overall availability
Source code is public and the Python package installs from PyPI (openai-agents). The README's examples require an OPENAI_API_KEY, and OpenAI's hosted models are not open. Tracing is enabled by default and sends traces to OpenAI's Traces dashboard unless disabled.17
Availability is separate from permission: read the license before using or redistributing.
The MIT licenses (copyright 2025 OpenAI) cover the Python and JavaScript/TypeScript SDK code. They do not cover OpenAI's hosted models or API services, or third-party model providers, which have their own terms.346
Component reuse rights
- weights
- Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
- code
- Reviewed qualifying license recorded — check scope and conditions
- data
- Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
- documentation
- Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
No complete system-rights review is recorded for this release.
Public materials checklist
| Item | Status | Notes and evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Source codeIs the source code publicly readable? | Public | Public repositories for the Python and JavaScript/TypeScript SDKs; client code only.12 |
| DocumentationIs user documentation published? | Public | Public official documentation, including model-provider and tracing guides.567 |
| InstallationAre installation instructions or packages publicly available? | Public | Installed with pip or uv as openai-agents, with optional extras for voice and Redis sessions.1 |
| Supported platformsAre supported operating systems or hardware documented? | Public | Python 3.10 or newer. The README notes that the local Unix sandbox client supports macOS and Linux; on Windows it points to the Docker sandbox client or a hosted sandbox client.1 |
| Release statusAre versioned releases published? | Public | Reviewed Python SDK v0.22.3, marked Latest and published September 17, 2026; the JavaScript/TypeScript SDK's latest release at review was v0.18.0, published September 10, 2026. This entry describes the project rather than one release.89 |
What it is useful for
Building applications in which language-model agents call tools, hand tasks to other agents, and check inputs and outputs. The SDK is open-source client code that calls a model API: OpenAI's hosted models, which are not open, through the Responses or Chat Completions APIs by default, or other providers through OpenAI-compatible endpoints, custom model providers, and beta adapters. It does not include model weights.16
Run and use notes
- The tracing documentation says tracing is enabled by default and can be turned off with the OPENAI_AGENTS_DISABLE_TRACING=1 environment variable, set_tracing_disabled(True), or a per-run setting; it is unavailable to organizations using OpenAI's APIs under a Zero Data Retention policy.7
- The models documentation describes using non-OpenAI providers through an OpenAI-compatible base URL, a custom ModelProvider, per-agent model settings, and beta LiteLLM and any-llm adapters, and warns that features differ between providers. It does not document a specific local model runtime.6
Organization context
U.S. eligibility
Eligible · basis: U.S.-governed project
Both SDKs are developed in OpenAI's GitHub organization, their LICENSE files assign copyright to OpenAI, and the documentation is published by OpenAI. OpenAI Group PBC, a Delaware public benefit corporation, gives a San Francisco, California address in a February 2026 agreement filed with the SEC. See the openai organization record.1234510
Sources
This listing is not an endorsement, a safety assessment, or a federal approval.