Getting Started with Google ADK: Your First AI Agent

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

- Python 3.11+ installed

- A Google Cloud account with billing enabled

- Basic familiarity with Python async/await patterns

What is Google ADK?

The Agent Development Kit (ADK) is Google's open-source framework for building, testing, and deploying AI agents. It provides:

- A structured agent class hierarchy

- Built-in tool registration and execution

- Session management and memory

- Deployment utilities for Google Cloud

Step 1: Install ADK

pip install google-adk

Step 2: Define Your Agent

from google.adk.agents import Agent
from google.adk.tools import tool

@tool
def search_web(query: str) -> str:
    """Search the web for information."""
    # Implementation here
    return f"Results for: {query}"

agent = Agent(
    name="research_assistant",
    model="gemini-2.0-flash",
    tools=[search_web],
    instruction="You are a helpful research assistant.",
)

Step 3: Test Locally

adk web

This starts a local web interface where you can chat with your agent.

Step 4: Deploy to Cloud Run

adk deploy cloud_run --project my-project --region us-central1

What's Next?

In the next tutorial, we'll add multi-tool orchestration and implement a human-in-the-loop approval workflow.