A side-by-side of two agent frameworks for building AI agents — live GitHub data, languages, and what each is best at.
Short answer: LlamaIndex leads OpenAI Agents SDK vs LlamaIndex by community traction (★ 51k vs ★ 28k). Pick OpenAI Agents SDK for minimal orchestration; pick LlamaIndex for RAG.
✓ Live data verified
| OpenAI Agents SDK | LlamaIndex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28k | ★ 51k |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Category | Agent frameworks | Agent frameworks |
| Best for | minimal orchestration | RAG |
| Repository | openai/openai-agents-python | run-llama/llama_index |
OpenAI Agents SDK and LlamaIndex are both credible choices. By community traction, LlamaIndex leads (★ 51k). Pick OpenAI Agents SDK for minimal orchestration; pick LlamaIndex for RAG.
Both are credible agent frameworks. By community traction LlamaIndex leads (★ 51k). Pick OpenAI Agents SDK for minimal orchestration; pick LlamaIndex for RAG.
OpenAI Agents SDK is OpenAI's lightweight agent framework — a small set of primitives (Agents, Handoffs, Guardrails, Sessions); provider-agnostic via LiteLLM. Evolved from Swarm.. LlamaIndex is Data framework for connecting LLMs to private data — indexing, retrieval, and agentic RAG over your documents..
LlamaIndex has more — ★ 51k vs ★ 28k (live counts).
Often yes — many teams combine agent frameworks. Check each tool's docs for interop; they solve overlapping but not identical problems.
OpenAI Agents SDK is primarily Python; LlamaIndex is primarily Python.
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