OpenAI Launches Dedicated Agents API for Long-Running Autonomous Tasks
A new managed service lets developers run multi-step AI agents in the cloud without having to build custom infrastructure.
OpenAI has officially launched its Agents API, a dedicated backend service designed to help developers build, host, and orchestrate independent AI agents. Instead of forcing builders to manage their own servers, keep track of complex conversational state, and stitch together separate tool-calling loops, OpenAI is turning agent management into a turnkey cloud platform.
An agent is an AI program designed to pursue a goal over multiple steps by deciding what actions to take, running tools, and evaluating its own progress along the way. Until now, keeping an agent running for hours or across complicated multi-tool workflows required significant custom engineering. The new service relies on OpenAI's Codex harness to coordinate sessions, trigger external software tools, and manage long-running tasks seamlessly.
Built-In Tool Orchestration and Memory
The release gives developers native support for orchestration — the behind-the-scenes system that decides which sub-tasks to run, in what order, and how to recover if a step fails. It also handles state persistence, meaning an agent can pause, wait for third-party systems to complete a job, and resume without losing context.
OpenAI is also exposing hooks for developers to connect custom APIs — application programming interfaces, which are standardized connectors that allow separate software programs to communicate with each other — directly to their hosted agents without needing fragile custom glue code.
What This Means for You as a Builder
If you build workflows that do more than answer a single prompt in one shot, hosting agent logic has usually been the messiest part of the stack. A standardized Agents API eliminates hundreds of lines of boilerplate infrastructure code. You can focus your energy entirely on defining clear system instructions, choosing the right tools, and designing great business logic rather than babysitting server state.