Ask HN: What's the best way to build multi agent PoCs today
1. Has anyone recently compared the various OSS multi agent frameworks and have strong opinions on what to start with and why? I have a preference for code based, but a UI to visualize would be nice.
- Phitdata
- AgentChat 0.4(RC)
- Crew
- Other?
2. In general, what is the most "batteries included" way to work with agents? My goal is to reduce time spent integrating tools (logging, monitoring, evaluation, security, etc) while I build PoCs. My current approach is LiteLLM + LangFuse, but would love to head about something better.
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[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 10.6 ms ] threadAfter working with thousands of teams building agents and complex LLM applications, I'd conclude that:
- all frameworks have their strengths and weaknesses, Crew and LangGraph are the popular options if you want to use a framework, both have sdk methods or add-on packages to visualize the agent
- biggest overall strength is to get started quickly
- biggest overall weakness is that complexity is abstracted which can lead to building more complexity than necessary, making it harder to maintain
- many teams build light abstractions and do very well with them
- larger organizations benefit from frameworks as it standardizes how llm applications are built, thus being able to hire and move people between teams while relying on the same abstraction -- without needing to design a generalized abstraction that works for all sorts of use cases
- many use cases do not need an "agent", implementation can be simpler and more predictable
I think you'd enjoy this very recent podcast episode on one way of thinking about building agents with SOTA models: https://www.latent.space/p/claude-sonnet
tldl: many use cases need less abstraction than initially assumed when using SOTA models, focus on tools as they have a lot of leverage on performance/quality
PS: Would love to chat in case you are interested as we currently plan many improvements with regards to agents. I just saw your message on this in the acquired slack and responded there right before getting the HN notification.