Installation & Hello Agent

Get the OpenAI Agents SDK installed and create your first agent.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9 or later
• An OpenAI API key

Install the SDK

pip install openai-agents

Set Up Your API Key

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

Your First Agent

from agents import Agent, Runner
 
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant that answers questions concisely.",
)
 
result = Runner.run_sync(agent, "What are AI agents?")
print(result.final_output)

That's it — three lines to define an agent and run it.

How It Works

1. Agent defines who the agent is — its name, instructions, and capabilities
2. Runner.run_sync() executes the agent loop — sending the user message, processing model responses, handling tool calls, and returning the final result
3. The result contains the final_output string plus the full conversation history

Async Support

For production applications, use the async runner:

import asyncio
from agents import Agent, Runner
 
agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
)
 
async def main():
    result = await Runner.run(agent, "Explain AI agents in one sentence.")
    print(result.final_output)
 
asyncio.run(main())

Next Steps

Now let's learn how the agent loop works under the hood and how to add tools.