Foundry no more connected agents

Question

Since foundry does not support connected agents anymore, how do I orchestrate now ?

Can you provide some video examples of how ?

I don’t want sequential workflow

Do I have to use A2A in my same foundry instance ?

Connected agents was so easy

Bring it back

Answer 1

Are you able to provide some video examples?

Doing A2A with same foundry instance

Answer 2

Connected Agents (classic) are deprecated and not available in the new Microsoft Foundry Agent Service. To orchestrate multiple agents now, use one of the supported patterns in the new platform:

1. Use multi-agent workflows

• Foundry (new) provides workflow orchestration patterns instead of Connected Agents.
• For non-sequential orchestration, use:
  • Group chat pattern: Dynamically passes control between agents based on context or rules. This is the closest replacement to Connected Agents for collaborative, non-linear multi-agent behavior (escalation, expert handoff, etc.).
  • Human in the loop pattern: If the process needs user decisions or approvals between agent steps.
• Workflows are created and run directly in the Foundry (new) portal:
  1. Sign in to Microsoft Foundry with the New Foundry toggle on.
  2. Select Build → Create new workflow.
  3. Choose a pattern (for Connected-Agents-like behavior, choose Group chat instead of Sequential).
  4. Add agent nodes and assign existing agents or create new ones.
  5. Save and run the workflow, then iterate on the design.

2. Use Agent-to-Agent (A2A) tool when one agent should stay in control

• If the requirement is “one primary agent that calls other agents as tools and then responds to the user itself,” use the A2A tool:
  • A2A tool pattern: Agent A calls Agent B via A2A; Agent B’s answer goes back to Agent A; Agent A summarizes and replies to the user and continues to handle future turns.
  • This is appropriate when the main agent should remain the single front door and other agents are just specialized helpers.
• This does not have to be a separate Foundry instance; the A2A tool is designed to connect a Foundry agent to any remote A2A-compatible endpoint (including other Foundry-based agents exposed as A2A endpoints).

3. When to choose which replacement

• Use multi-agent workflow (Group chat) when:
  • Control should move between agents depending on context.
  • A downstream agent should take over the conversation after handoff.
• Use A2A tool when:
  • A single primary agent should always own the user interaction.
  • Other agents are invoked as tools and their outputs are post-processed by the primary agent.

4. About videos and examples

• The provided context only documents concepts and patterns (workflows and A2A) and does not include video examples. For implementation details, follow the workflow creation steps and the A2A tool guidance in the referenced articles.

Connected Agents (classic) will not be brought back in the new Foundry Agent Service; the supported path is to migrate to workflows and/or A2A as described in the migration guidance and tool documentation.

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References:

• Build collaborative, multi-agent systems with Connected Agents (classic) (portal)
• Build collaborative, multi-agent systems with Connected Agents (classic) (csharp)
• Build collaborative, multi-agent systems with Connected Agents (classic) (python)
• Connect to an A2A agent endpoint from Foundry Agent Service (preview) (csharp)
• Connect to an A2A agent endpoint from Foundry Agent Service (preview) (typescript)
• Connect to an A2A agent endpoint from Foundry Agent Service (preview) (rest-api)
• Connect to an A2A agent endpoint from Foundry Agent Service (preview) (python)
• Build a workflow in Microsoft Foundry