NeMo Agent Toolkit
NeMo Agent Toolkit vs LangGraph, CrewAI and LangChain: what each one is for
The NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit is not a replacement for LangGraph, CrewAI or LangChain. Those are frameworks for writing an agent. The NeMo Agent Toolkit works with agents written in any of them and adds what sits around the agent: configuration, tracing, profiling, evaluation and serving. Most teams use a framework and the toolkit together.
Update, November 2026
NVIDIA has deprecated the NeMo Agent Toolkit library as of October 2026, with end of life at the end of 2026, and names NeMo Relay, NeMo Fabric and NeMo Helix as its successors. The NVIDIA Agent Toolkit announced in March 2026 continues. 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.
What each one is for
| Tool | What it is | Best at |
|---|---|---|
| LangChain | A library of components and integrations for language model applications | Connecting models to data and tools quickly |
| LangGraph | A library for agents defined as a graph of steps with state | Complex control flow, loops and branching |
| CrewAI | A framework for teams of agents with roles | Multi-agent tasks described as roles and goals |
| Google ADK | An agent development kit from Google | Agents built around Google models and services |
| NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit | A library that sits around agents from any of the above | Configuration, tracing, profiling, evaluation and serving |
What the NeMo Agent Toolkit adds
- Configuration. An agent, its tools and its model are described in a file, so they can change without rewriting code.
- Tracing. Each step of a run is recorded.
- Profiling. Time and tokens are measured per step, so the slow or costly step is visible.
- Evaluation. An agent is scored against a test set.
- Serving. An agent is exposed as a service other systems can call.
- Tool standards. Support for the Model Context Protocol, to use tools and to offer an agent as one.
How they fit together
Write the agent in the framework your team knows. Wrap it with the NeMo Agent Toolkit to trace, profile and evaluate it. The agent logic stays where it is. What changes is that you can see what it does, measure it and test it before release.
When a framework alone is enough
- A prototype or a single agent for one team.
- No need yet for evaluation gates, cost tracking or an audit trail.
When you need more than both
A framework and the toolkit give a developer a complete kit. They do not give an organisation shared access control, budgets per department, guardrail policy set centrally, a place for business users to build, or somewhere for staff to use the agents. That is a platform.
Where Katonic fits
Katonic runs agents written in LangGraph, CrewAI, Google ADK or plain Python under one set of controls, and every agent built in Katonic compiles to NVIDIA's open agent software. Teams keep their framework. The organisation gets evaluation before release, NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails, budgets, approval steps and one audit trail.
Read next
- NVIDIA Agent Toolkit vs NeMo Agent Toolkit →
- Running toolkit agents in production →
- Use case: moving agent pilots to production →
- NVIDIA Agent Toolkit for enterprise AI →
- NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit is deprecated: what replaces it? →
- NVIDIA migration guide for the NeMo Agent Toolkit →
Questions and answers
Is the NeMo Agent Toolkit better than LangGraph?
They do different jobs. LangGraph defines how an agent works. The NeMo Agent Toolkit traces, profiles, evaluates and serves agents, including ones written in LangGraph.
Can I use the NeMo Agent Toolkit with CrewAI?
Yes. It works with agents written in CrewAI and other open-source frameworks.
Do I have to rewrite my agent to use it?
No. The agent logic stays in your framework. The toolkit sits around it.
Does the NeMo Agent Toolkit only work with NVIDIA models?
No. It works with models from different providers, and is designed to work well with NVIDIA models and serving software.
What are the alternatives to the NVIDIA Agent Toolkit?
For writing agents: LangGraph, CrewAI, LangChain, Semantic Kernel and Google ADK. For running many agents under governance on your own infrastructure: an agent platform such as Katonic, which is itself built on the NeMo Agent Toolkit.