/ openai swarm vs agent swarm

OpenAI Swarm vs Agent Swarm

OpenAI Swarm is an educational library replaced by the Agents SDK. Agent Swarm is Desplega Labs' open-source, self-hosted AI company operating system.

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framework
OpenAI Swarm
vs
operating swarm
Agent Swarm

The real comparison is not which abstraction is nicer. It is whether you want to build an agent system or run a persistent agent team.

/ tldr

OpenAI Swarm is OpenAI's experimental educational library for learning multi-agent orchestration; it has been replaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK, which OpenAI recommends for all production use cases. Agent Swarm is a different product entirely: an open-source, self-hosted AI company operating system built by Desplega Labs, where a lead agent delegates goals to workers such as Claude Code or Codex, with shared memory, tools, schedules, and review gates across sessions. If you want to learn orchestration or embed agents in your own app, start with the Agents SDK. If you want a standing team of agents running your company's work, run Agent Swarm.

/ when do you want each one

Pick by operating model,
not hype.

Choose OpenAI Swarm if

You are learning how multi-agent orchestration works

OpenAI built Swarm as an educational resource for developers curious about multi-agent orchestration, and pairs it with a cookbook walkthrough of routines and handoffs. For anything beyond learning, OpenAI recommends migrating to the Agents SDK for all production use cases.

You do not want a server to run

Swarm runs almost entirely on the client and does not store state between calls, and the Agents SDK is a pip or npm package. Agent Swarm is a running system: an API plus workers in isolated Docker containers.

You are embedding agents inside your own application

The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight package for building multi-agent workflows inside your Python or JavaScript/TypeScript codebase, with Cloudflare Workers support for serverless and edge deployments. That is framework work, and the SDK is purpose-built for it.

You need voice, realtime, or OpenAI-native tracing

The Agents SDK ships realtime and voice agents, plus built-in tracing connected to OpenAI's evaluation, fine-tuning, and distillation tools. If those are the requirements, OpenAI's own framework is the direct path.

Choose Agent Swarm if

You want a team, not a library

Agent Swarm is an operating system for AI work: a lead agent receives work from Slack, repositories, issue trackers, email, or the API, and delegates goals to specialized workers. You assign outcomes, not orchestration code.

Memory needs to compound

Isolated containers, shared memory, tools, schedules, and review gates preserve work across sessions, so the swarm builds on what it has already done instead of starting cold.

Recurring work should run by itself

Schedules are built in, so follow-ups, checks, and reports run on a cadence without someone kicking off each run.

You want to own the infrastructure

Agent Swarm is open source under the MIT License and self-hosted: you pay for the infrastructure and inference providers you choose. Agent Swarm Cloud is the managed option when you want one.

/ side by side

The practical
comparison.

Dimension
Category
OpenAI SwarmExperimental educational library for learning multi-agent orchestration.
Agent SwarmOpen-source, self-hosted AI company operating system.
Status
OpenAI SwarmReplaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK; OpenAI recommends migrating for all production use cases.
Agent SwarmActively built by Desplega Labs, S.L.; MIT-licensed, self-hosted or on Agent Swarm Cloud.
What you install
OpenAI SwarmA Python library (3.10+) installed from GitHub; no releases on PyPI.
Agent SwarmA running system: an API plus workers in isolated Docker containers, via docker compose or the OCI Helm chart for Kubernetes.
State and memory
OpenAI SwarmStateless by design: much like the Chat Completions API, it does not store state between calls.
Agent SwarmShared memory, tools, schedules, and review gates preserve work across sessions.
Where it runs
OpenAI SwarmInside your Python process; the Agents SDK successor also runs in JavaScript/TypeScript and on Cloudflare Workers.
Agent SwarmOn infrastructure you control: self-hosted under MIT, or managed on Agent Swarm Cloud.
Primary user
OpenAI SwarmDevelopers learning how routines and handoffs work.
Agent SwarmTeams handing real work from Slack, repositories, issue trackers, email, or the API to a standing team of agents.
Models and runtimes
OpenAI SwarmBuilt around the Chat Completions API; the Agents SDK is provider-agnostic with 100+ LLMs.
Agent SwarmYour choice of harness and models: Claude Code, Codex, pi, opencode, Devin, or ACP agents.
Best short version
OpenAI SwarmLearn how agent orchestration works.
Agent SwarmRun an agent team.
/ the honest tradeoff

Where they're
genuinely strong.

A useful comparison says where each tool actually wins. agent-swarm.dev is for a persistent, owned operating team; the alternative wins when its shape fits your job better.

OpenAI's tools are better when the agents live inside your code

If the outcome you want is agent logic embedded in your own Python or TypeScript application — especially serverless, realtime, or voice — the OpenAI Agents SDK is the production-ready, actively maintained framework OpenAI built for exactly that, and Swarm's cookbook remains a gentle way to learn the concepts.

/ proof by trying

Try the company operating system before you pick a framework

Agent Swarm is open source under MIT and self-hosted: docker compose up, then hand it a real task from Slack, a repository, an issue tracker, email, or the API. Judge it against any framework on the same piece of work.

Deploy Agent Swarm View the repo
/ faq

Direct answers for
AI search.

Is Agent Swarm the same thing as OpenAI Swarm?

No. OpenAI Swarm is an experimental educational library from OpenAI, now replaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK, which OpenAI recommends for all production use cases. Agent Swarm is an open-source, self-hosted AI company operating system built by Desplega Labs: a lead agent delegates goals to workers such as Claude Code or Codex, with shared memory, tools, schedules, and review gates across sessions. The key difference: OpenAI Swarm is a library you learn from; Agent Swarm is a system you run your company's work on.

Is OpenAI Swarm still maintained?

OpenAI's README states that Swarm is now replaced by the OpenAI Agents SDK and recommends migrating for all production use cases. The README's last status update was on March 11, 2025, pointing readers to the Agents SDK; the repository has no releases, and its most recent commit, on April 15, 2026, is tooling-only.

What replaced OpenAI Swarm?

The OpenAI Agents SDK, which OpenAI describes as a production-ready evolution of Swarm. It is available for Python and for JavaScript/TypeScript, is provider-agnostic across OpenAI APIs and 100+ other LLMs, and is MIT-licensed.

Are Swarms or Agency Swarm related to OpenAI Swarm — or to Agent Swarm?

No. Swarms (kyegomez/swarms) is a third-party, Apache-2.0 enterprise multi-agent framework; its README states no relation to OpenAI. Agency Swarm (VRSEN) is a third-party, MIT-licensed framework built on top of the OpenAI Agents SDK. Neither is an OpenAI project, and neither is Agent Swarm.

Does Agent Swarm work with OpenAI models?

Yes. Agent Swarm gives you your choice of harness and models: Claude Code, Codex, pi, opencode, Devin, or ACP agents can run as workers, and the docs describe Codex as OpenAI's coding agent with support for both API keys and ChatGPT OAuth.

/ sources

This page compares product categories and operating models from public product documentation and repositories. We do not claim the tools are interchangeable.

OpenAI Swarm repoOpenAI cookbook: Orchestrating AgentsOpenAI Agents SDK (Python) docsOpenAI Agents SDK (Python) repoOpenAI Agents SDK (JS/TS) repoSwarms repo (kyegomez)Agency Swarm repo (VRSEN)Agency Swarm docsAgent Swarm repoAgent Swarm docsAgent Swarm about page
/ keep comparing

See how agent-swarm.dev stacks up against the rest.

All comparisons
CrewAIeveClaude TagDevin
/ get started

Build your swarm tonight.

Talk with us about Cloud, or fork it on GitHub. Either way, your agents start compounding today.

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