Rating · evidence to 26 Sept 2026
74
- Provisional
- Trust B
- Open source
The Register / Multi-agent frameworks / Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Register entry · Multi-agent frameworks · updated 26 Sept 2026
Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Google · Multi-agent frameworks
ADK is an Apache-2.0 agent framework from Google with LLM agents, workflow agents and, since ADK 2.0 (Python GA May 2026), graph-based workflows. It supports function, MCP and OpenAPI tools, sessions and memory, an evaluation framework, a local dev UI (adk web) and deployment to Cloud Run, GKE or Vertex AI Agent Engine. It is optimised for Gemini but can use other models.
What reviewers and users praise
- Reviewed as capable and mostly complete, with better tooling and more language options than Bedrock AgentCore (InfoWorld, Apr 2026)
- Developers praise its abstractions and production features (HN)
- A user benchmark found lower output-token use than LangGraph on the same workflow (r/agentdevelopmentkit)
- 20 Python releases in 90 days; parallel 1.x and 2.x lines maintained
What they criticise
- Significant learning curve (InfoWorld); criticised as heavy and over-abstracted (HN)
- Defaults lean on Google services, e.g. long-term memory on Vertex AI; custom/self-hosted model endpoints are a reported pain point
- Passes full context on every call by default, raising token cost (r/agentdevelopmentkit)
- Critical code-injection / missing-authentication CVE in April 2026 (fixed)
Experts vs the crowdneeds both scores
Experts—
Crowd60
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Use it via | API, CLI, Web app |
| Runs on | macos, linux, windows |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Multi-agent frameworks: adoption 45%, experts 30%, crowd 25%. Pillars without enough evidence are left out and the others re-weighted. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 45% | 82 | GitHub stars 22k → 71 · npm weekly downloads 205k → 63 · PyPI monthly downloads 9.9M → 92 · 20 releases in 90 days → 100reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 30% | — | Only 1 independent review (3 needed) |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 25% | 60 | 15 dated posts from hackernews, reddit: 7 positive · 5 mixed · 3 negative (positive + ½ mixed) ÷ n, averaged toward 50 for small samples |
| Rating | 74 | Provisional: low confidence (2 of 3 pillars, 15 community posts). |
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: B.
C
Permission model
Tools execute automatically by default; confirmation is opt-in per tool ('Set require_confirmation to True to require user confirmation for the tool call'). source
n/e
Data access scope
Access is whatever tools the developer registers; no general scoping model documented. Not graded. source
A
Data storage
Open-source library that runs locally or in any container; session/memory services are pluggable. Google Cloud (Vertex AI) services are optional deployment targets, not required. source
n/e
Data retention & training
Model-agnostic; retention and training depend on the model provider/tier chosen (e.g. Gemini API vs Vertex AI). Not graded.
C
Incident history (24 months)
One critical CVE in 24 months, resolved: CVE-2026-4810 code injection and missing authentication allowing unauthenticated remote code execution on ADK hosts (Python 1.7.0–1.28.1 and 2.0.0a1). Fixed in 1.28.1 and 2.0.0a2; users told to redeploy. source
n/e
Compliance
Library itself has no attestation; Google Cloud attestations would apply only when deployed on Google Cloud. Not graded.
A
Transparency
Apache-2.0 open source with public GitHub releases for each language edition. source
The experts
1 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- positive
Overall, I like the Google ADK, and its architecture makes more sense to me than Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.
Martin Heller (InfoWorld) · 13 Apr 2026 · infoworld.com
The crowd
15 coded posts from hackernews, reddit.
7 positive5 mixed3 negative
- positive
I think Google's ADK ecosystem and this new AX platform is promising--I would expect Google to maintain this and other tooling around this for years to come.
news.ycombinator.com comment · 21 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - mixed
Vendor neutral memory & context management is a challenge as default long-term memory uses vertext AI (gemini) in ADK.
news.ycombinator.com comment · 11 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
Great framework, happy user with my personal agent stack
news.ycombinator.com comment · 22 Apr 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - mixed
ADK lacks the ability to run any agent tool, but you can build most of this projects controlplane on top of it
news.ycombinator.com comment · 7 Apr 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
I use Google's Agent Development Kit (adk)[0] at work and enjoy using it quite a bit.
news.ycombinator.com comment · 24 Dec 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
ADK is anything but minimal. It indeed has too much abstraction. It's certainly designed to promote Google's own services.
news.ycombinator.com comment · 18 Dec 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
some big IDs are not passed precisely in Google ADK framework [1], presumbly because its JSON serialization failed to keep the precision.
news.ycombinator.com comment · 22 Nov 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
Google's ADK is pretty nice, I'm using the Go version, which is less mature than the python on.
news.ycombinator.com comment · 22 Nov 2025 · news.ycombinator.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Framework | Free | Apache-2.0 open source; model usage and optional Vertex AI Agent Engine hosting are billed separately (Agent Engine pricing is primarily usage-based per InfoWorld). |
Recent changes
- 25 Sept 2026
adk-python v2.10.0 released. source
- 1 Jul 2026
Google published 'Why we built ADK 2.0' describing the graph workflow engine. source
- 30 Jun 2026
ADK Go 2.0 announced GA with graph workflows and collaborative agents. source
- 19 May 2026
adk-python v2.0.0 released (graph workflows); 1.x line continues in parallel. source
- 13 Apr 2026
Critical CVE-2026-4810 disclosed and patched (1.28.1 / 2.0.0a2). source
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.