NeMo Agent Toolkit
NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit is deprecated: what replaces it?
NVIDIA deprecated the NeMo Agent Toolkit library as of October 2026 and set its end of life for the end of 2026. Three open-source projects replace it. NeMo Relay takes over observability, middleware and governance. NeMo Fabric takes over running agents. NeMo Helix takes over evaluation, optimization and hardening. All three are published under the Apache 2.0 licence.
What NVIDIA announced
The documentation for the NeMo Agent Toolkit now opens with a deprecation notice. It says the library has been deprecated as of October 2026, will reach end of life by the end of 2026, and that users should complete their migration before that date. The notice names three successor projects and says to choose the ones that match the capabilities you use.
What replaces what
| What you used the toolkit for | Successor | What the successor is |
|---|---|---|
| Tracing, telemetry, middleware, governance | NeMo Relay | A library that wraps model and tool calls so you can observe and control them without rewriting the agent |
| Configuring and running agents | NeMo Fabric | One interface for running agent harnesses and custom agents through adapters |
| Evaluation, optimization, safety testing | NeMo Helix | An open-source control plane for improving and hardening production agents |
The three can be used together. An application that needs observability, agent execution and evaluation uses all three.
What is not affected
- The NVIDIA Agent Toolkit announced in March 2026. That is the wider set of open models, agents, skills and runtimes. The deprecated item is the NeMo Agent Toolkit library inside it.
- NVIDIA NIM and NVIDIA Dynamo, which serve models.
- NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails.
- Agents written in LangGraph, CrewAI, LangChain or Google ADK. The agent logic belongs to those frameworks.
What end of life means in practice
- The library is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, so an existing installation keeps working.
- After end of life you should not expect fixes, including security fixes.
- New work should not start on it.
- The three successors were all pre-1.0 releases in November 2026, so pin versions and expect change.
What to do now
- List which parts of the toolkit you use: configuration, tracing, profiling, evaluation, serving.
- Pin the toolkit version you run today.
- Map each part to its successor using the table above.
- Move one part at a time, starting with tracing.
- Read the migration guide NVIDIA publishes with the toolkit documentation.
Where Katonic fits
Every agent built in Katonic is a declarative definition that compiles to NVIDIA's open agent software. Today that software is the NeMo Agent Toolkit. When NVIDIA changes the runtime, Katonic changes the compiler and your agents carry over. A team that built directly on the library has a migration to do. A team that built on the platform keeps its agents as they are.
Read next
- NeMo Relay vs NeMo Fabric vs NeMo Helix →
- How to migrate from the NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit →
- NVIDIA Agent Toolkit vs NeMo Agent Toolkit →
- NVIDIA migration guide →
- NeMo Relay on GitHub →
- NeMo Fabric on GitHub →
- NeMo Helix on GitHub →
Questions and answers
Is the NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit deprecated?
Yes. NVIDIA deprecated it as of October 2026, with end of life by the end of 2026.
What replaces the NeMo Agent Toolkit?
Three open-source projects: NeMo Relay for observability, middleware and governance, NeMo Fabric for running agents, and NeMo Helix for evaluation, optimization and hardening.
Is the NVIDIA Agent Toolkit deprecated too?
No. The NVIDIA Agent Toolkit announced in March 2026 is the wider set of open models, agents, skills and runtimes. Only the NeMo Agent Toolkit library was deprecated.
Are the replacements open source?
Yes. NeMo Relay, NeMo Fabric and NeMo Helix are published on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 licence.
Will my existing agents stop working?
Not on the end-of-life date. The library keeps running, but you should not expect fixes after it, so plan the move.
What happens to agents built in Katonic?
They carry over. An agent in Katonic is a declarative definition, and Katonic changes the compiler when NVIDIA changes the runtime.