The Agent Development Kit (ADK) for Java is an open-source, code-first toolkit designed for developers to build, evaluate, and deploy sophisticated AI agents with fine-grained control and flexibility. It targets developers who need to integrate AI agents tightly with Google Cloud services, offering robust debugging, versioning, and deployment capabilities.

How It Works

ADK enables defining agent logic, orchestration, and tool use directly in Java. It supports a rich tool ecosystem, allowing integration of pre-built tools, custom functions, OpenAPI specs, and existing tools, with a focus on seamless integration within the Google ecosystem. The toolkit facilitates modular multi-agent systems, enabling the composition of specialized agents into flexible hierarchies for scalable applications.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Installation: Maven dependency:

  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.adk</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-adk</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.0</version>
  </dependency>
  

  Unreleased versions can be accessed via Jitpack.
• Documentation: Java documentation & Samples

Highlighted Details

• Code-first Java development for flexibility, testability, and versioning.
• Supports modular multi-agent systems and hierarchical composition.
• Offers a development UI for testing, evaluation, and debugging, similar to the Python ADK.
• Integrates with the A2A protocol for remote agent-to-agent communication.

Maintenance & Community

The project welcomes community contributions. Further details on community engagement and roadmap are not explicitly provided in the README.

Licensing & Compatibility

Licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. The project is in a "Pre-GA" state, subject to Google's "Pre-GA Offerings Terms," meaning it's available "as is" with potentially limited support.

Limitations & Caveats

The toolkit is in a Pre-GA (Preview) stage, indicating potential instability, limited support, and possible breaking changes. Features like "Evaluate Agents" are marked as "Coming soon."