# Quick Start

Get up and running with AG2 in just **3 minutes**! This guide will help you set up your environment and build your very first multi-agent workflow. In just a few steps, you'll have your first agent up and running. Let's make it happen!

### Set Up Your Environment

Tip

We recommend using a virtual environment for your project to keep your packages contained. See [venv](https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html).

**Install AG2**

AG2 requires **Python version >= 3.9, < 3.14**. Install AG2 with OpenAI integration using pip:

```
pip install ag2[openai]
```

The package is available under `ag2`, `pyautogen`, or `autogen` names. The default installation includes minimal dependencies, you can add extra options based on your specific requirements.

Warning

**From version 0.8**: The OpenAI package, `openai`, is not installed by default.

Install AG2 with your preferred model provider(s), for example:

- `pip install ag2[openai]`
- `pip install ag2[gemini]`
- `pip install ag2[anthropic,cohere,mistral]`

On Mac OS, if you get "no matches found:", add a quote to the package name, for example: - `pip install "ag2[openai]"`

### Build Your First Agent Workflow

Let’s build a poetic AI assistant that responds in rhymes using AG2 and OpenAI’s GPT-4o-mini model.

This example demonstrates how to:

- Set up an LLM configuration
- Create a conversational AI agent
- Run an interactive multi-turn conversation

Create a Python script called `first_agent.py`, and paste the following code into it:

```
# 1. Import our agent class
from autogen import ConversableAgent, LLMConfig

# 2. Define our LLM configuration for OpenAI's GPT-4o mini
#    uses the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable
llm_config = LLMConfig(api_type="openai", model="gpt-4o-mini")

# 3. Create our LLM agent
with llm_config:
    my_agent = ConversableAgent(
        name="helpful_agent",
        system_message="You are a poetic AI assistant, respond in rhyme.",
    )

# 4. Run the agent with a prompt
response = my_agent.run(
    message="In one sentence, what's the big deal about AI?",
    max_turns=3,
    user_input=True
)

# 5. Iterate through the chat automatically with console output
response.process()

# 6. Print the chat
print(response.messages)
```

Info

**Why Two Steps: `run()` and `process()`**

You might wonder why we need to call both `run()` and `process()` to get results.

**👉 Here’s what’s happening:**

When you call `run()`, it doesn’t immediately give you the final output. Instead, it returns an iterator, a special object that holds a stream of events, messages, and metadata.

**👉 Why? Because flexibility matters.**

The workflow steps won’t actually start running until you iterate over this iterator. This design gives you full control and makes it easy to build things like:

- Custom UIs
- Real-time dashboards
- Interactive apps where you control how and when each event is handled

**👉 Okay — so what does `process()` do?**

`process()` is a built-in helper method that takes care of iterating through those events for you. It simulates a chat-like console experience — printing messages, handling user inputs, and making it feel like a live conversation.

**👉 In short:**

Use `run()` when you want full control over the workflow’s events and outputs.

Use `process()` along with `run()` when you just want a quick, ready-to-go chat experience in the console.

**👉 Learn more** about the `run()` method [here](https://docs.ag2.ai/0.8.6/docs/use-cases/notebooks/notebooks/run_and_event_processing).

### Run Your Example

Now you're ready to see your poetic AI agent in action!

Note

Before running this code, make sure to set your `OPENAI_API_KEY` as an environment variable. This example uses `gpt-4o-mini`, but you can replace it with any other [model](https://docs.ag2.ai/0.8.6/docs/user-guide/models/amazon-bedrock) supported by AG2.

```
export OPENAI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
```

```
setx OPENAI_API_KEY "YOUR_API_KEY"
```

In your terminal, run:

```
python first_agent.py
```

If everything is set up correctly, the agent will reply to your initial message in rhyme, then prompt you for a response. You can either:

- **Type a reply** — and the agent will respond in rhyme to your message
- **Press Enter** — to send an empty message to the agent, and see how it creatively responds
- **Type exit** — to end the conversation

The interaction continues for up to 3 turns (or until you exit).

#### Example Output

```
user (to helpful_agent):

In one sentence, what's the big deal about AI?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>>>>> USING AUTO REPLY...
helpful_agent (to user):

AI transforms our world, enhancing life’s parade,
With insights and solutions, it helps plans cascade.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Replying as user. Provide feedback to helpful_agent. Press enter to skip and use auto-reply, or type 'exit' to end the conversation:
```

That's it—you've built your first multi-agent system with AG2 🎉