A practical guide to building agents (PDF)
by OpenAI
Plain-language foundations: when to build an agent, orchestration, guardrails.
This guide frames decisions about when an agent is appropriate, how work is coordinated and where safeguards belong. Read it before selecting a framework so that the task determines the architecture.
- Level
- Beginner
- Models
- any
- Category
- Agents and harnesses
- Tags
- design-patterns
- Source date
- date not stated
- Added
- 2026-10-18
- Last verified
- 2026-10-18
- Status
- ok
- Prerequisites
- Conceptual or guided prompt use; the main path does not require writing code.
- Subcategory
- agent design patterns
- Region
- West
- Original language
- en
- Access
- free
- Resource reuse
- closed: No general open-reuse grant established from the inspected page. Closed is the conservative index bucket, not a legal finding; the resource is publicly readable. Facet definitions
Summary in our own words. Rights remain with the original creator. Credit and correction policy.