Microsoft Agent Framework

Code-First Frameworks

Enterprise-Scale Multi-Agent Platform

Maintained by Microsoft (successor to AutoGen)

Core Architecture

The Microsoft Agent Framework (successor to AutoGen and Semantic Kernel) operates on an event-driven, message-passing actor model. Agents run as independent, stateful nodes that communicate via asynchronous messaging channels. It supports native integration with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Azure security infrastructure, making it ideal for enterprise deployments.

How to Use & Configuration

code_example.pypython

from microsoft_agent import EventAgent, Channel

channel = Channel()
writer = EventAgent(
    name="writer", 
    system_message="Draft content."
)
editor = EventAgent(
    name="editor", 
    system_message="Review content."
)

channel.register(writer)
channel.register(editor)
channel.publish("Start project draft", target="writer")

Technology Payment Plans

Open Source CoreFree

Completely free under the MIT license, run on-premise or locally.

Azure IntegrationPay-As-You-Go

Billed under standard Azure consumption rates for hosting container instances and model completions.

Key Advantages

•Highly scalable actor-model architecture for distributed multi-agent systems
•Native integration with Azure security, active directory, and keys
•Excellent support for Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Comparison Analysis

Technology	Primary Use Case & Engineering Focus
Microsoft Agent Framework	Asynchronous actor-model scaling, enterprise security, and Azure cloud integration
CrewAI	CrewAI is designed for simple, synchronous agent hierarchies, while MS Agent scales to distributed actor clusters.