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Fast and Flexible Multi-Agent Automation Framework

CrewAI is a lean, lightning-fast Python framework built entirely from scratch—completely independent of LangChain or other agent frameworks. It empowers developers with both high-level simplicity and precise low-level control, ideal for creating autonomous AI agents tailored to any scenario.

• CrewAI Crews: Optimize for autonomy and collaborative intelligence.
• CrewAI Flows: Enable granular, event-driven control, single LLM calls for precise task orchestration and supports Crews natively

With over 100,000 developers certified through our community courses at learn.crewai.com, CrewAI is rapidly becoming the standard for enterprise-ready AI automation.

CrewAI AMP Suite

CrewAI AMP Suite is a comprehensive bundle tailored for organizations that require secure, scalable, and easy-to-manage agent-driven automation.

You can try one part of the suite the Crew Control Plane for free

Crew Control Plane Key Features:

• Tracing & Observability: Monitor and track your AI agents and workflows in real-time, including metrics, logs, and traces.
• Unified Control Plane: A centralized platform for managing, monitoring, and scaling your AI agents and workflows.
• Seamless Integrations: Easily connect with existing enterprise systems, data sources, and cloud infrastructure.
• Advanced Security: Built-in robust security and compliance measures ensuring safe deployment and management.
• Actionable Insights: Real-time analytics and reporting to optimize performance and decision-making.
• 24/7 Support: Dedicated enterprise support to ensure uninterrupted operation and quick resolution of issues.
• On-premise and Cloud Deployment Options: Deploy CrewAI AMP on-premise or in the cloud, depending on your security and compliance requirements.

CrewAI AMP is designed for enterprises seeking a powerful, reliable solution to transform complex business processes into efficient, intelligent automations.

Table of contents

• Why CrewAI?
• Getting Started
• Key Features
• Understanding Flows and Crews
• CrewAI vs LangGraph
• Examples
  • Quick Tutorial
  • Write Job Descriptions
  • Trip Planner
  • Stock Analysis
  • Using Crews and Flows Together
• Connecting Your Crew to a Model
• How CrewAI Compares
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Contribution
• Telemetry
• License

Why CrewAI?

CrewAI unlocks the true potential of multi-agent automation, delivering the best-in-class combination of speed, flexibility, and control with either Crews of AI Agents or Flows of Events:

• Standalone Framework: Built from scratch, independent of LangChain or any other agent framework.
• High Performance: Optimized for speed and minimal resource usage, enabling faster execution.
• Flexible Low Level Customization: Complete freedom to customize at both high and low levels - from overall workflows and system architecture to granular agent behaviors, internal prompts, and execution logic.
• Ideal for Every Use Case: Proven effective for both simple tasks and highly complex, real-world, enterprise-grade scenarios.
• Robust Community: Backed by a rapidly growing community of over 100,000 certified developers offering comprehensive support and resources.

CrewAI empowers developers and enterprises to confidently build intelligent automations, bridging the gap between simplicity, flexibility, and performance.

Getting Started

Setup and run your first CrewAI agents by following this tutorial.

Learning Resources

Learn CrewAI through our comprehensive courses:

• Multi AI Agent Systems with CrewAI - Master the fundamentals of multi-agent systems
• Practical Multi AI Agents and Advanced Use Cases - Deep dive into advanced implementations

Understanding Flows and Crews

CrewAI offers two powerful, complementary approaches that work seamlessly together to build sophisticated AI applications:

1. Crews: Teams of AI agents with true autonomy and agency, working together to accomplish complex tasks through role-based collaboration. Crews enable:

   • Natural, autonomous decision-making between agents
   • Dynamic task delegation and collaboration
   • Specialized roles with defined goals and expertise
   • Flexible problem-solving approaches

2. Flows: Production-ready, event-driven workflows that deliver precise control over complex automations. Flows provide:

   • Fine-grained control over execution paths for real-world scenarios
   • Secure, consistent state management between tasks
   • Clean integration of AI agents with production Python code
   • Conditional branching for complex business logic

The true power of CrewAI emerges when combining Crews and Flows. This synergy allows you to:

• Build complex, production-grade applications
• Balance autonomy with precise control
• Handle sophisticated real-world scenarios
• Maintain clean, maintainable code structure

Getting Started with Installation

To get started with CrewAI, follow these simple steps. The full walkthrough lives in the installation guide.

1. Installation

CrewAI requires Python >=3.10 and <3.14. Check your version with:

python3 --version

CrewAI uses UV for dependency management and package handling. If you haven't installed uv yet, install it first.

macOS/Linux:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

If your system doesn't have curl, you can use wget:

wget -qO- https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Windows:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

If you run into any issues, refer to UV's installation guide.

Then install the CrewAI CLI:

uv tool install crewai

If you encounter a PATH warning, run:

uv tool update-shell

If you encounter the chroma-hnswlib==0.7.6 build error (fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'float.h') on Windows, install Visual Studio Build Tools with Desktop development with C++.

Verify the install:

uv tool list

You should see something like:

crewai v0.102.0
- crewai

To upgrade the global CLI later:

uv tool install crewai --upgrade

This upgrades the global crewai CLI tool only. To upgrade the crewai version inside a project's virtual environment, see Upgrading CrewAI in a project.

2. Setting Up Your Crew

crewai create crew creates a JSON-first crew project. Agents live in agents/*.jsonc, tasks and crew-level settings live in crew.jsonc, and crewai run loads that JSON definition directly.

crewai create crew <project_name>

This command creates a new project folder with the following structure:

my_project/
├── .gitignore
├── .env
├── agents/
│   └── researcher.jsonc
├── crew.jsonc
├── knowledge/
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── skills/
└── tools/

If you need the older Python/YAML scaffold with crew.py, config/agents.yaml, and config/tasks.yaml, run:

crewai create crew <project_name> --classic

See Using Annotations for the classic pattern.

To customize your project, you can:

• Modify agents/*.jsonc to define each agent's role, goal, backstory, LLM, tools, and behavior.
• Modify crew.jsonc to define tasks, process, and input defaults.
• Add custom tools in tools/ and reference them as "custom:<name>".
• Add optional knowledge files in knowledge/ and skill files in skills/.
• Add your environment variables into the .env file.

Use {placeholder} values in agent and task text, then set defaults in crew.jsonc under inputs. When you run crewai run, the CLI prompts for any missing values.

Example of a simple crew with a sequential process:

crewai create crew latest-ai-development
cd latest_ai_development

Then edit the generated files:

agents/researcher.jsonc

{
  "role": "{topic} Senior Data Researcher",
  "goal": "Uncover cutting-edge developments in {topic}",
  "backstory": "You're a seasoned researcher who finds relevant information and presents it clearly.",
  "llm": "openai/gpt-4o",
  "tools": ["SerperDevTool"],
  "settings": {
    "verbose": true
  }
}

agents/reporting_analyst.jsonc

{
  "role": "{topic} Reporting Analyst",
  "goal": "Create detailed reports based on {topic} data analysis and research findings",
  "backstory": "You're a meticulous analyst who turns complex data into clear, concise reports.",
  "llm": "openai/gpt-4o",
  "settings": {
    "verbose": true
  }
}

crew.jsonc

{
  "name": "Latest AI Development",
  "agents": ["researcher", "reporting_analyst"],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "name": "research_task",
      "description": "Conduct thorough research about {topic}. Find recent, relevant information.",
      "expected_output": "A list with 10 bullet points of the most relevant information about {topic}.",
      "agent": "researcher"
    },
    {
      "name": "reporting_task",
      "description": "Review the research and expand each topic into a full section for a report.",
      "expected_output": "A markdown report with the main topics, each with a full section of information. No fenced code blocks around the whole document.",
      "agent": "reporting_analyst",
      "context": ["research_task"],
      "output_file": "output/report.md",
      "markdown": true
    }
  ],
  "process": "sequential",
  "verbose": true,
  "inputs": {
    "topic": "AI Agents"
  }
}

3. Running Your Crew

Before running your crew, set the required keys in your .env file:

• Your model provider API key — see LLM setup
• A Serper.dev API key if you use web search: SERPER_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY_HERE

Then install dependencies and run from the project directory:

crewai install
crewai run

If you need additional packages, use uv add <package-name>.

You should see the output in the console, and output/report.md should be created in the project root.

In addition to the sequential process, you can use the hierarchical process, which automatically assigns a manager to the defined crew to properly coordinate the planning and execution of tasks through delegation and validation of results. See more about the processes here.

For a Flow-first walkthrough, see the Quickstart.

Key Features

CrewAI stands apart as a lean, standalone, high-performance multi-AI Agent framework delivering simplicity, flexibility, and precise control—free from the complexity and limitations found in other agent frameworks.

• Standalone & Lean: Completely independent from other frameworks like LangChain, offering faster execution and lighter resource demands.
• Flexible & Precise: Easily orchestrate autonomous agents through intuitive Crews or precise Flows, achieving perfect balance for your needs.
• Seamless Integration: Effortlessly combine Crews (autonomy) and Flows (precision) to create complex, real-world automations.
• Deep Customization: Tailor every aspect—from high-level workflows down to low-level internal prompts and agent behaviors.
• Reliable Performance: Consistent results across simple tasks and complex, enterprise-level automations.
• Thriving Community: Backed by robust documentation and over 100,000 certified developers, providing exceptional support and guidance.

Choose CrewAI to easily build powerful, adaptable, and production-ready AI automations.

Examples

You can test different real life examples of AI crews in the CrewAI-examples repo:

• Landing Page Generator
• Having Human input on the execution
• Trip Planner
• Stock Analysis

Quick Tutorial

Write Job Descriptions

Check out code for this example or watch a video below:

Trip Planner

Check out code for this example or watch a video below:

Stock Analysis

Check out code for this example or watch a video below:

Using Crews and Flows Together

CrewAI's power truly shines when combining Crews with Flows to create sophisticated automation pipelines. CrewAI flows support logical operators like or_ and and_ to combine multiple conditions. This can be used with @start, @listen, or @router decorators to create complex triggering conditions.

• or_: Triggers when any of the specified conditions are met.
• and_Triggers when all of the specified conditions are met.

Here's how you can orchestrate multiple Crews within a Flow:

from crewai.flow.flow import Flow, listen, start, router, or_
from crewai import Crew, Agent, Task, Process
from pydantic import BaseModel

# Define structured state for precise control
class MarketState(BaseModel):
    sentiment: str = "neutral"
    confidence: float = 0.0
    recommendations: list = []

class AdvancedAnalysisFlow(Flow[MarketState]):
    @start()
    def fetch_market_data(self):
        # Demonstrate low-level control with structured state
        self.state.sentiment = "analyzing"
        return {"sector": "tech", "timeframe": "1W"}  # These parameters match the task description template

    @listen(fetch_market_data)
    def analyze_with_crew(self, market_data):
        # Show crew agency through specialized roles
        analyst = Agent(
            role="Senior Market Analyst",
            goal="Conduct deep market analysis with expert insight",
            backstory="You're a veteran analyst known for identifying subtle market patterns"
        )
        researcher = Agent(
            role="Data Researcher",
            goal="Gather and validate supporting market data",
            backstory="You excel at finding and correlating multiple data sources"
        )

        analysis_task = Task(
            description="Analyze {sector} sector data for the past {timeframe}",
            expected_output="Detailed market analysis with confidence score",
            agent=analyst
        )
        research_task = Task(
            description="Find supporting data to validate the analysis",
            expected_output="Corroborating evidence and potential contradictions",
            agent=researcher
        )

        # Demonstrate crew autonomy
        analysis_crew = Crew(
            agents=[analyst, researcher],
            tasks=[analysis_task, research_task],
            process=Process.sequential,
            verbose=True
        )
        return analysis_crew.kickoff(inputs=market_data)  # Pass market_data as named inputs

    @router(analyze_with_crew)
    def determine_next_steps(self):
        # Show flow control with conditional routing
        if self.state.confidence > 0.8:
            return "high_confidence"
        elif self.state.confidence > 0.5:
            return "medium_confidence"
        return "low_confidence"

    @listen("high_confidence")
    def execute_strategy(self):
        # Demonstrate complex decision making
        strategy_crew = Crew(
            agents=[
                Agent(role="Strategy Expert",
                      goal="Develop optimal market strategy")
            ],
            tasks=[
                Task(description="Create detailed strategy based on analysis",
                     expected_output="Step-by-step action plan")
            ]
        )
        return strategy_crew.kickoff()

    @listen(or_("medium_confidence", "low_confidence"))
    def request_additional_analysis(self):
        self.state.recommendations.append("Gather more data")
        return "Additional analysis required"

This example demonstrates how to:

1. Use Python code for basic data operations
2. Create and execute Crews as steps in your workflow
3. Use Flow decorators to manage the sequence of operations
4. Implement conditional branching based on Crew results

Connecting Your Crew to a Model

CrewAI supports using various LLMs through a variety of connection options. By default your agents will use the OpenAI API when querying the model. However, there are several other ways to allow your agents to connect to models. For example, you can configure your agents to use a local model via the Ollama tool.

Please refer to the Connect CrewAI to LLMs page for details on configuring your agents' connections to models.

How CrewAI Compares

CrewAI's Advantage: CrewAI combines autonomous agent intelligence with precise workflow control through its unique Crews and Flows architecture. The framework excels at both high-level orchestration and low-level customization, enabling complex, production-grade systems with granular control.

• LangGraph: While LangGraph provides a foundation for building agent workflows, its approach requires significant boilerplate code and complex state management patterns. The framework's tight coupling with LangChain can limit flexibility when implementing custom agent behaviors or integrating with external systems.

P.S. CrewAI demonstrates significant performance advantages over LangGraph, executing 5.76x faster in certain cases like this QA task example (see comparison) while achieving higher evaluation scores with faster completion times in certain coding tasks, like in this example (detailed analysis).

• Autogen: While Autogen excels at creating conversational agents capable of working together, it lacks an inherent concept of process. In Autogen, orchestrating agents' interactions requires additional programming, which can become complex and cumbersome as the scale of tasks grows.
• ChatDev: ChatDev introduced the idea of processes into the realm of AI agents, but its implementation is quite rigid. Customizations in ChatDev are limited and not geared towards production environments, which can hinder scalability and flexibility in real-world applications.

Contribution

CrewAI is open-source and we welcome contributions. If you're looking to contribute, please:

• Fork the repository.
• Create a new branch for your feature.
• Add your feature or improvement.
• Send a pull request.
• We appreciate your input!

Installing Dependencies

uv lock
uv sync

Virtual Env

uv venv

Pre-commit hooks

pre-commit install

Running Tests

uv run pytest .

Running static type checks

uvx mypy src

Packaging

uv build

Installing Locally

pip install dist/*.tar.gz

Telemetry

CrewAI uses anonymous telemetry to collect usage data with the main purpose of helping us improve the library by focusing our efforts on the most used features, integrations and tools.

It's pivotal to understand that NO data is collected concerning prompts, task descriptions, agents' backstories or goals, usage of tools, API calls, responses, any data processed by the agents, or secrets and environment variables, with the exception of the conditions mentioned. When the share_crew feature is enabled, detailed data including task descriptions, agents' backstories or goals, and other specific attributes are collected to provide deeper insights while respecting user privacy. Users can disable telemetry by setting the environment variable OTEL_SDK_DISABLED to true.

Data collected includes:

• Version of CrewAI
  • So we can understand how many users are using the latest version
• Version of Python
  • So we can decide on what versions to better support
• General OS (e.g. number of CPUs, macOS/Windows/Linux)
  • So we know what OS we should focus on and if we could build specific OS related features
• Number of agents and tasks in a crew
  • So we make sure we are testing internally with similar use cases and educate people on the best practices
• Crew Process being used
  • Understand where we should focus our efforts
• If Agents are using memory or allowing delegation
  • Understand if we improved the features or maybe even drop them
• If Tasks are being executed in parallel or sequentially
  • Understand if we should focus more on parallel execution
• Language model being used
  • Improved support on most used languages
• Roles of agents in a crew
  • Understand high level use cases so we can build better tools, integrations and examples about it
• Tools names available
  • Understand out of the publicly available tools, which ones are being used the most so we can improve them

Users can opt-in to Further Telemetry, sharing the complete telemetry data by setting the share_crew attribute to True on their Crews. Enabling share_crew results in the collection of detailed crew and task execution data, including goal, backstory, context, and output of tasks. This enables a deeper insight into usage patterns while respecting the user's choice to share.

License

CrewAI is released under the MIT License.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

• What exactly is CrewAI?
• How do I install CrewAI?
• Does CrewAI depend on LangChain?
• Is CrewAI open-source?
• Does CrewAI collect data from users?

Features and Capabilities

• Can CrewAI handle complex use cases?
• Can I use CrewAI with local AI models?
• What makes Crews different from Flows?
• How is CrewAI better than LangChain?
• Does CrewAI support fine-tuning or training custom models?

Resources and Community

• Where can I find real-world CrewAI examples?
• How can I contribute to CrewAI?

Enterprise Features

• What additional features does CrewAI AMP offer?
• Is CrewAI AMP available for cloud and on-premise deployments?
• Can I try CrewAI AMP for free?

Q: What exactly is CrewAI?

A: CrewAI is a standalone, lean, and fast Python framework built specifically for orchestrating autonomous AI agents. Unlike frameworks like LangChain, CrewAI does not rely on external dependencies, making it leaner, faster, and simpler.

Q: How do I install CrewAI?

A: Install the CrewAI CLI with UV:

uv tool install crewai

Then create a project with crewai create crew <project_name>, run crewai install, and start it with crewai run. See the installation guide for details.

Q: Does CrewAI depend on LangChain?

A: No. CrewAI is built entirely from the ground up, with no dependencies on LangChain or other agent frameworks. This ensures a lean, fast, and flexible experience.

Q: Can CrewAI handle complex use cases?

A: Yes. CrewAI excels at both simple and highly complex real-world scenarios, offering deep customization options at both high and low levels, from internal prompts to sophisticated workflow orchestration.

Q: Can I use CrewAI with local AI models?

A: Absolutely! CrewAI supports various language models, including local ones. Tools like Ollama and LM Studio allow seamless integration. Check the LLM Connections documentation for more details.

Q: What makes Crews different from Flows?

A: Crews provide autonomous agent collaboration, ideal for tasks requiring flexible decision-making and dynamic interaction. Flows offer precise, event-driven control, ideal for managing detailed execution paths and secure state management. You can seamlessly combine both for maximum effectiveness.

Q: How is CrewAI better than LangChain?

A: CrewAI provides simpler, more intuitive APIs, faster execution speeds, more reliable and consistent results, robust documentation, and an active community—addressing common criticisms and limitations associated with LangChain.

Q: Is CrewAI open-source?

A: Yes, CrewAI is open-source and actively encourages community contributions and collaboration.

Q: Does CrewAI collect data from users?

A: CrewAI collects anonymous telemetry data strictly for improvement purposes. Sensitive data such as prompts, tasks, or API responses are never collected unless explicitly enabled by the user.

Q: Where can I find real-world CrewAI examples?

A: Check out practical examples in the CrewAI-examples repository, covering use cases like trip planners, stock analysis, and job postings.

Q: How can I contribute to CrewAI?

A: Contributions are warmly welcomed! Fork the repository, create your branch, implement your changes, and submit a pull request. See the Contribution section of the README for detailed guidelines.

Q: What additional features does CrewAI AMP offer?

A: CrewAI AMP provides advanced features such as a unified control plane, real-time observability, secure integrations, advanced security, actionable insights, and dedicated 24/7 enterprise support.

Q: Is CrewAI AMP available for cloud and on-premise deployments?

A: Yes, CrewAI AMP supports both cloud-based and on-premise deployment options, allowing enterprises to meet their specific security and compliance requirements.

Q: Can I try CrewAI AMP for free?

A: Yes, you can explore part of the CrewAI AMP Suite by accessing the Crew Control Plane for free.

Q: Does CrewAI support fine-tuning or training custom models?

A: Yes, CrewAI can integrate with custom-trained or fine-tuned models, allowing you to enhance your agents with domain-specific knowledge and accuracy.

Q: Can CrewAI agents interact with external tools and APIs?

A: Absolutely! CrewAI agents can easily integrate with external tools, APIs, and databases, empowering them to leverage real-world data and resources.

Q: Is CrewAI suitable for production environments?

A: Yes, CrewAI is explicitly designed with production-grade standards, ensuring reliability, stability, and scalability for enterprise deployments.

Q: How scalable is CrewAI?

A: CrewAI is highly scalable, supporting simple automations and large-scale enterprise workflows involving numerous agents and complex tasks simultaneously.

Q: Does CrewAI offer debugging and monitoring tools?

A: Yes, CrewAI AMP includes advanced debugging, tracing, and real-time observability features, simplifying the management and troubleshooting of your automations.

Q: What programming languages does CrewAI support?

A: CrewAI is primarily Python-based but easily integrates with services and APIs written in any programming language through its flexible API integration capabilities.

Q: Does CrewAI offer educational resources for beginners?

A: Yes, CrewAI provides extensive beginner-friendly tutorials, courses, and documentation through learn.crewai.com, supporting developers at all skill levels.

Q: Can CrewAI automate human-in-the-loop workflows?

A: Yes, CrewAI fully supports human-in-the-loop workflows, allowing seamless collaboration between human experts and AI agents for enhanced decision-making.