NexusLabs.Foundry.MicrosoftAgentFramework 0.1.0-alpha-0001

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/assets/foundry.webp" alt="Foundry logo" width="360"> </p>

<h1 align="center">Foundry</h1>

<p align="center"> <strong>Forge reliable, observable, and testable AI agent systems in .NET.</strong> </p>

<p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/ncosentino/foundry/actions/workflows/ci.yml"><img alt="CI" src="https://github.com/ncosentino/foundry/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg?branch=main"></a> <a href="https://github.com/ncosentino/foundry/actions/workflows/docs.yml"><img alt="Documentation" src="https://github.com/ncosentino/foundry/actions/workflows/docs.yml/badge.svg?branch=main"></a> <a href="LICENSE"><img alt="MIT License" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg"></a> <a href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/"><img alt=".NET 10" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/.NET-10.0-512BD4"></a> <img alt="Status: Alpha" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/status-alpha-orange"> </p>

Foundry is an AI and agentic application framework for .NET. It brings agent construction, orchestration, diagnostics, evaluation, experimentation, provider integrations, and deterministic testing into one composable package family.

Foundry is dependency-injection neutral at its core. Use standard IServiceCollection registration, or add the optional Needlr integrations when you want source-generated discovery and Needlr's plugin-oriented composition model.

Installation

Release v0.1.0-alpha.1 maps to NuGet package version 0.1.0-alpha-0001. After the release workflow completes, install the core Microsoft Agent Framework runtime:

dotnet add package NexusLabs.Foundry.MicrosoftAgentFramework --version 0.1.0-alpha-0001

Add the workflow, generator, analyzer, provider, or Needlr integration packages that match your application. See Getting Started for the recommended package combinations.

Why Foundry?

AI prototypes are easy to start and difficult to operate. Foundry focuses on the parts that become important after the first successful prompt:

• Declarative agents and workflows with generated registries and typed factory methods.
• Composable orchestration for sequential, handoff, group-chat, graph, and iterative-loop workloads.
• Provider-neutral evaluation with retries, concurrency limits, deterministic and statistical policies, and publication pipelines.
• Built-in observability for agent runs, tool calls, token usage, progress, budgets, and pipeline performance.
• Replaceable integrations for Microsoft Agent Framework, MEAI Reporting, Langfuse, GitHub Copilot, Semantic Kernel, and Needlr.
• Deterministic testing tools for generated functions, agents, workflows, and scripted model interactions.

Package map

Neutral Foundry packages never depend on Needlr. Needlr-specific behavior is isolated under NexusLabs.Foundry.Needlr.*.

A small example

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

using NexusLabs.Foundry.MicrosoftAgentFramework;
using NexusLabs.Foundry.MicrosoftAgentFramework.Workflows.Diagnostics;

var services = new ServiceCollection();
services.AddFoundryAgentFramework(builder => builder
    .UsingChatClient(chatClient)
    .UsingDiagnostics());

using var provider = services.BuildServiceProvider();
var agent = provider
    .GetRequiredService<IAgentFactory>()
    .CreateAgent<ResearchAgent>();

var response = await agent.RunAsync(
    "Compare the trade-offs of reflection and source generation.",
    cancellationToken: CancellationToken.None);

[FoundryAgent(
    Instructions = "Research the request and return a concise, sourced answer.")]
internal sealed partial class ResearchAgent
{
}

The source generator discovers the agent declaration and produces the registries used by IAgentFactory. Reflection-based discovery remains available where runtime flexibility is more important than trimming or NativeAOT.

Documentation

• Documentation source
• Agent Framework integrations and workflows
• Provider-neutral experiment runner
• Langfuse integration
• Testing tools
• Versioned API reference
• Architecture decisions

The public documentation target is www.devleader.ca/projects/foundry.

Examples

The solution includes 30 compile-validated example projects under src/Examples:

• generated agents and functions;
• sequential, handoff, group-chat, and graph workflows;
• iterative loops, progress dashboards, diagnostics, and token metrics;
• provider-neutral experiments, MEAI Reporting, and Langfuse;
• GitHub Copilot and Semantic Kernel integrations;
• NativeAOT and generator-coexistence checks.

Build from source

dotnet build src\NexusLabs.Foundry.slnx

Build the documentation locally with:

python -m pip install --requirement requirements-docs.txt
python -m mkdocs build --strict

Trusted Linux CI jobs support isolated PitCrew runners. See Local CI Runners for routing and fork-safety details.

About

Foundry is built by Nick Cosentino, creator of Dev Leader and BrandGhost.

Find Nick online:

• Blog and software engineering articles
• YouTube
• Dev Leader Weekly newsletter
• LinkedIn
• All links

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. For substantial behavioral or architectural changes, open an issue first so the intended package boundary and public API can be discussed before implementation.

License

Foundry is licensed under the MIT License.