Fundamentals of Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Google Skills
Last updated March 18, 2026
A focused, three-hour developer starting point for building AI agents with Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK). It moves from how agents differ from a plain language-model API — they execute actions autonomously rather than only generating text — to hands-on building: setting up the ADK development environment and creating agents with Python and YAML, then refining their behavior with planning and structured output. The concept course is free; the hands-on build portions run on Google Skills and need a subscription or credits. Comfort with Python is expected.
What you'll learn
- How AI agents differ from a plain large-language-model API
- Setting up the ADK development environment
- Building and configuring agents with Python and YAML
- Progressing from basic setups to more capable assistants
- Tuning agent behavior with advanced instructions, model selection, planning, and structured output
Frequently asked questions about Fundamentals of Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Who is Fundamentals of Agent Development Kit (ADK) for?
For developers comfortable with Python who want a short, hands-on introduction to building AI agents with Google's Agent Development Kit.
What are the prerequisites for Fundamentals of Agent Development Kit (ADK)?
Comfort with Python; you set up a real development environment. Suited to developers.
Do you need to code for Fundamentals of Agent Development Kit (ADK)?
Yes — Fundamentals of Agent Development Kit (ADK) involves hands-on coding.
Why we suggest this course
This is the cleanest "build your first agent" entry point in Google's ADK lineup — short, practical, and code-first, without the scope of the much larger enterprise paths. It pairs naturally with the conceptual Introduction to Agents path for developers who want both the why and the how. One thing to know: it is a genuine developer course — you work in Python and YAML and set up a real development environment, so it assumes you can already code.