openai-agents-sdk_skill

Overview

This skill provides practical guidance for building agentic AI applications with the OpenAI Agents SDK in Python. It covers agents, handoffs, tools, guardrails, Runner usage, tracing, and multi-agent patterns to help you design reliable, observable workflows. Follow the examples to configure agents, add function tools, implement validation, and orchestrate multi-agent systems.

How this skill works

The SDK models agents as LLM-driven components configured with instructions, optional structured output types, tools (callable functions), and handoffs to other agents. A Runner executes agent loops, manages conversation history and context, and supports streaming and tracing. Guardrails run as input/output validators that can block or transform flows and raise clear exceptions that you should handle.

When to use it

• Create a conversational or task-oriented AI agent with clear instructions and tools
• Build a triage or multi-agent routing layer that forwards requests to specialists
• Implement safe input/output validation and policy checks using guardrails
• Expose external APIs or internal systems to agents via function tools
• Add observability and debugging with tracing during development and production

Best practices

• Write precise, unambiguous instructions and handoff descriptions
• Use Pydantic models for structured outputs to make downstream processing predictable
• Keep tools focused: single responsibility and clear docstrings for auto-generated tool descriptions
• Implement input and output guardrails to detect and stop unsafe content or PII leaks
• Share state through the Runner context rather than global variables
• Enable tracing in development and set a custom trace handler for monitoring

Example use cases

• Triage agent that routes customer requests to Billing or Technical specialists
• Pipeline that analyzes input, processes data, and formats results across stages
• Supervisor coordinating research and writing agents, then merging outputs
• Function tools that fetch user data, call external APIs, or read files with context access
• Guardrails that block harmful inputs or detect PII before returning responses