5 Minute Overview

5-Minute Overview

Get up to speed on OSSA in 5 minutes.

What is OSSA?

OSSA (Open Standard for Software Agents) is like OpenAPI, but for AI agents.

OpenAPI = Standard format for REST APIs
OSSA = Standard format for AI agents

Why Does This Matter?

Before OSSA

Agents built with LangChain couldn't work with Anthropic SDK agents
Moving agents between teams required rewriting
No standard way to validate agent correctness
Framework lock-in everywhere

With OSSA

✅ Agents work across any framework
✅ Move agents between teams/organizations easily
✅ Validate agents before deployment
✅ No vendor lock-in

Core Concept

OSSA defines agents using a declarative YAML/JSON format:

apiVersion: ossa/v0.3.x
kind: Agent

metadata:
  name: my-agent
  version: 1.0.0
  description: My first OSSA agent

spec:
  role: You are a helpful assistant
  llm:
    provider: openai
    model: gpt-3.5-turbo
  tools:
    - type: function
      name: greet_user
      description: Greet a user by name

Key Components

Component	What It Does
Specification	JSON Schema that defines the standard
CLI	Validates and generates agent manifests
Examples	Reference implementations for learning
agent-buildkit	Reference implementation with production features

What OSSA Is NOT

❌ Not a framework - It's a standard
❌ Not a runtime - It's a specification
❌ Not an orchestration tool - It's a contract definition

Next Steps

Install OSSA CLI: npm install -g @bluefly/openstandardagents
Try the Hello World example: See Hello World Tutorial
Create your first agent: See First Agent Creation
Explore examples: Check out Examples & Patterns

Learn More

Time to next level: ~15 minutes → Hello World Tutorial