I’ve been looking at a number of different ways to build Agents. I’ve settled on two and will be documenting what I learn as I go:
- Building from first principles based on my course on Agentics at Johns Hopkins
- Building using Microsoft’s new Agent Framework
The advantage of the first is that you understand the underlying mechanisms in more depth; the advantage of the second is that a lot of the plumbing is done for you and you become more productive more quickly.
I will do the .NET work in C#, and probably do all the other work in Python. See my blogpost on why Python.
I will, to a degree, be documenting what I learn as I learn it, without infringing on copyright, of course.
Project 1 – Jupyter
The work for Johns Hopkins is done in a Jupyter notebook. These are very convenient files that contain runnable cells. You put your code snippet in a cell and run it, either receiving a result or extensive error information. To get started, open Visual Studio Code and click New File. In the drop down on top, choose Jupyter Notebook:
Choose your Python environment, and put code into the first “cell.” Then click on the knob on the left and the cell runs and the output is displayed:
You can add markdown, you can even tell it to generate code based on your description of what you want. It is possible to have these cells generate a proper Python program and/or generate
Open AI Endpoint
Whether you are working in the Jupyter notebook or in Agent Framework, you will want an OpenAI Endpoint. To do so go to https://platform.openai.com, sign in, go to API Keys, create a new key. Your endpoint is the base url used for API calls.
Or… if you are working in the Microsoft ecosystem, in the Azure Portal search for Azure OpenAI and create a resource. Then go to Resource Management -> Keys and Endpoint. Copy the Endpoint and Key 1 (your API key) Deploy under Resource Management -> Model Deployments. Your endpoint will look like this:
https://<your-resource-name>.openai.azure.com/
Copilot can set all this up for you.
Next up: setting up your environment.
