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Ask HN: What's the best way to build multi agent PoCs today

by bberenberg on 12/5/24, 7:36 PM with 1 comments

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.

  • by marcklingen on 12/5/24, 8:14 PM

    -- langfuse founder/maintainer here

    After 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.