OpenAI Swarm
Swarm is an experimental, educational project from OpenAI's solutions team, designed to be simple and readable rather than production-ready. OpenAI now explicitly states, in the project's own README, that Swarm is replaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK for any production use; Swarm remains a useful educational reference for understanding multi-agent orchestration patterns.
Key advantages
- Deliberately simple, readable code, good for learning
- Published by OpenAI's solutions team
- Lightweight, no heavy dependencies
Who it's for, and why
Developers who want to understand the basics of multi-agent orchestration before choosing a production framework.
- Learning multi-agent orchestration patterns
- Quickly prototyping a multi-agent system
- An educational base before migrating to a production framework
Getting started
- 1Install: `pip install git+https://github.com/openai/swarm.git` (Python 3.10 or later required).
- 2Before starting: read the official recommendation to migrate to the OpenAI Agents SDK if the goal is production use (see Limitations below).
- 3For learning: follow the README's examples to create agents and context handoffs between them.
Things to watch out for
- Important: OpenAI explicitly states, in the project's own README, that Swarm is replaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK and recommends migrating to it for any production use. Swarm remains labeled "experimental and educational".
- Best reserved for learning multi-agent orchestration concepts; for a real project, the Agents SDK (openai/openai-agents-python) is OpenAI's own recommended choice.
Frequently asked questions
Does OpenAI still recommend using Swarm today?
No. The project's official README explicitly states it's replaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK, recommended for any production use. Swarm remains useful for educational purposes only.
What should I do if an existing project already uses Swarm?
Plan a migration to the OpenAI Agents SDK, the officially supported and actively maintained evolution from OpenAI's team.
Why list it here if it's deprecated for production?
Because it remains a clear educational reference for understanding the basic patterns of multi-agent orchestration (context handoffs between agents), before adopting a more complete framework.
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