Google has officially launched its Agent Development Kits (ADKs) for both Python and Java, marking a significant step in enabling developers to build advanced AI agents with greater control and adaptability.

Announced on May 20, the Python ADK has reached its 1.0.0 milestone, signaling full production readiness. This version is geared toward developers seeking a robust foundation for deploying intelligent agents in real-world applications. In contrast, the Java ADK, now in its preliminary 0.1.0 release, provides a foundation for Java developers to begin exploring agent-based systems with Google’s tooling.

These open-source kits were designed to simplify and streamline the creation and orchestration of intelligent software agents. Google emphasizes that the ADKs offer a modular and extensible framework, not tied to any specific AI model or deployment platform. While naturally optimized for use with Google’s Gemini models and broader ecosystem, the ADKs maintain compatibility with other infrastructures and frameworks, fostering broader adoption.

Highlights of the Python and Java ADKs

• Tooling Flexibility: Developers can choose from a library of built-in tools, define their own functions, use OpenAPI specifications, or incorporate third-party tools to extend agent behavior—all while ensuring seamless alignment with Google Cloud and Gemini.
• Developer-Centric Design: The ADKs enable code-driven agent construction, allowing users to craft orchestration logic directly in Python or Java. This empowers better versioning, easier testing, and improved development workflows.
• Composable Agent Systems: The architecture supports building systems that consist of multiple collaborative agents. These agents can be specialized for different roles and organized into scalable, dynamic structures that support both simple and complex workflows.

The overarching goal of these toolkits is to bridge the gap between traditional software engineering and AI development. By introducing familiar development practices to the world of agent design, Google hopes to lower the barrier to entry for building intelligent systems and promote best practices in agent orchestration.

Whether you’re working on simple automation tasks or sophisticated AI pipelines, Google’s new ADKs provide a flexible and powerful foundation for taking AI agents from prototype to production.