Google Agent Development Kit
Code-first, model-agnostic toolkit for building, evaluating, and deploying AI agents.
About
Google's Agent Development Kit takes a code-first, model-agnostic approach to building, evaluating, and deploying AI agents, and it is the same framework that powers Agent Engine on Google Cloud. Python is the primary implementation, installed with pip install google-adk on Python 3.10 or newer, with official TypeScript, Go, Java, and Kotlin versions maintained in sibling repositories. Version 2.0 introduced graph-based workflows with routing, fan-out and fan-in, loops, retries, state management, and human-in-the-loop steps, alongside a Task API for structured agent-to-agent delegation, built-in evaluation tooling, and a local web UI for testing. Tools plug in as custom functions, OpenAPI specs, or MCP servers, and the A2A protocol is supported for exposing and consuming remote agents. Gemini gets native integration while adapters cover Claude, Gemma, and locally served models through Ollama or vLLM. Deployment targets include Agent Runtime, Cloud Run, and GKE, or any container platform. The project is Apache-2.0, ships updates roughly biweekly, holds about 20.9k stars, and documents everything at adk.dev.
Should you use Google Agent Development Kit?
Pick it when
Use ADK when you target Gemini or Google Cloud, or want one framework across Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, and Kotlin, with graph workflows, built-in evaluation, A2A support, and a direct path to Agent Engine, Cloud Run, or GKE.
Look elsewhere when
Non-Gemini models work through adapters rather than natively, and the deployment story leans toward Google Cloud. On AWS, Strands Agents fits better; on Azure or .NET, Microsoft Agent Framework; for a provider-neutral Python library, Pydantic AI.
Alternatives to Google Agent Development Kit
- Strands Agents
AWS counterpart with Bedrock as a first-class provider and OpenTelemetry tracing; fewer languages, simpler model-driven loop.
- Microsoft Agent Framework
Graph workflows for .NET and Python with an Azure AI Foundry path; MIT licensed and the better fit for Microsoft shops.
- OpenAI Agents SDK
Smaller primitive set and a quicker start; Python plus a TypeScript port, without ADK's graph workflows or Go, Java, and Kotlin SDKs.
- LangGraph
Vendor-neutral graph runtime with persistence; no cloud lean, but evaluation and deployment are separate concerns.
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Details
- Category
- AI Agents & Orchestration
- Price
- Free
- Platform
- Local/Desktop
- Difficulty
- Intermediate (3/5)
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Added
- Jul 29, 2026