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Getting Started with Google's Agent Development Kit

Luis Sala - - 2 min read

A practical introduction to building AI agents with Google Cloud's ADK - from basic concepts to your first working agent.

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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Happy building!