Summary

In this chapter, we focused on how to manage, monitor, and validate agentic systems built with OpenAI Agents SDK. We began with visualization, learning how to generate graphs that show the flow of agents, tools, and handoffs, making system architecture easier to understand and debug. We then introduced guardrails, both input and output, which act as protective layers to enforce policies and prevent unsafe or irrelevant interactions. From there, we explored the Traces module, which records traces and spans of each run, giving you detailed insight into how your agents behave internally. Finally, we looked at testing, including end-to-end and unit testing approaches, to systematically verify agent reliability despite their inherent non-determinism.

Together, these capabilities form the foundation of agent management. They enable you to not only build powerful agentic systems but also keep them safe, observable, and dependable as they scale. In the next chapter, we will take...