Getting Started with Google's Agent Development Kit

The Agent Development Kit (ADK) is Google Cloud’s framework for building AI agents. If you’ve been wanting to dive into multi-agent systems but weren’t sure where to start, this post is for you.

What is ADK?

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ADK provides the scaffolding for building AI agents that can:

• Use tools to interact with external systems
• Maintain conversation context
• Chain multiple steps together
• Work with other agents in parallel or sequence

Think of it as the orchestration layer between your AI model (like Gemini) and the real world.

Core Concepts

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Agents

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An agent is an AI that can take actions. It has:

• A model (usually Gemini) for reasoning
• Tools it can use
• Instructions that guide its behavior

Tools

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Tools are functions your agent can call. Examples:

• Search the web
• Query a database
• Send an email
• Generate an image

Multi-Agent Patterns

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The real power comes from combining agents:

• Sequential: Agent A completes, then Agent B starts
• Parallel: Agents A and B work simultaneously
• Hierarchical: A supervisor agent delegates to specialist agents

Your First Agent

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Here’s a minimal example:

from google.adk import Agent, Tool

# Define a simple tool
@Tool
def get_weather(city: str) -> str:
    """Get the current weather for a city."""
    # In reality, call a weather API
    return f"The weather in {city} is sunny and 72°F"

# Create an agent
agent = Agent(
    model="gemini-pro",
    tools=[get_weather],
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant that can check the weather."
)

# Run the agent
response = agent.run("What's the weather like in San Francisco?")
print(response)

Best Practices

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From my experience building agents in hackathons and production:

1. Start simple - One agent, one tool, then expand
2. Clear instructions - Be specific about what the agent should do
3. Handle errors gracefully - Tools will fail; plan for it
4. Test incrementally - Verify each component works before combining

Resources

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• ADK Documentation
• Gemini API
• My GitHub notebooks with ADK examples

Happy building!