Microsoft Agent Framework is a multi-language framework for building, coordinating, and running AI agents and workflows in Python and .NET. Teams use it for agent systems that need orchestration, collaboration, durability, observability, governance, or human involvement beyond a single prompt or chat loop. Catalogue add-ons provide skills and instructions for working with the framework.
Getting it into your agent
It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/agent-frameworknpx agentmods add skills/microsoft/agent-framework/build-and-testWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/agent-framework/build-and-test)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/agent-framework/build-and-test"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/agent-framework/build-and-test/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/agent-framework/build-and-test"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/agent-framework/build-and-test.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>- Snyk pass
- NVIDIA SkillSpector pass
What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00026 | $0.01596 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00010 | $0.00638 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00005 | $0.00319 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00003 | $0.00160 |
Grade A, and why
build-and-test scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 1mo ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 131 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
- Only UnitTest projects need to be run locally; IntegrationTests require external dependencies.
- See
../project-structure/SKILL.mdfor project structure details.
Build, Test, and Lint Commands
# From dotnet/ directory
dotnet restore --tl:off # Restore dependencies for all projects
dotnet build --tl:off # Build all projects
dotnet test # Run all tests
dotnet format # Auto-fix formatting for all projects
# Build/test/format a specific project (preferred for isolated/internal changes)
dotnet build src/Microsoft.Agents.AI.<Package> --tl:off
dotnet test --project tests/Microsoft.Agents.AI.<Package>.UnitTests
dotnet format src/Microsoft.Agents.AI.<Package>
# Run a single test
# Replace the filter values with the appropriate assembly, namespace, class, and method names for the test you want to run and use * as a wildcard elsewhere, e.g. "/*/*/HttpClientTests/GetAsync_ReturnsSuccessStatusCode"
# Use `--ignore-exit-code 8` to avoid failing the build when no tests are found for some projects
dotnet test --filter-query "/<assemblyFilter>/<namespaceFilter>/<classFilter>/<methodFilter>" --ignore-exit-code 8
# Run unit tests only
# Use `--ignore-exit-code 8` to avoid failing the build when no tests are found for integration test projects
dotnet test --filter-query "/*UnitTests*/*/*/*" --ignore-exit-code 8
Use --tl:off when building to avoid flickering when running commands in the agent.
Speeding Up Builds and Testing
The full solution is large. Use these shortcuts:
| Change type | What to do |
|---|---|
| Isolated/Internal logic | Build only the affected project and its *.UnitTests project. Fix issues, then build the full solution and run all unit tests. |
| Public API surface | Build the full solution and run all unit tests immediately. |
Example: Building a single code project for all target frameworks
# From dotnet/ directory
dotnet build ./src/Microsoft.Agents.AI.Abstractions
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 1mo ago First seen · 131 lines · 26 tokens per session scan A 72b9cf14edb5
build-and-test is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/agent-framework (14,171 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 26 tokens to every session and 1,596 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.
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