## What it is MAS-Lab is an open toolkit for **engineering** multi-agent systems. You describe agents, teams, tools, workflows, and policies in YAML; the runtime executes and checks behavior at important boundaries; experiments and traces let you compare designs and audit what happened. The same specification travels from local development through benchmarks to governed deployment — intent stays explicit instead of scattered across code and prompts. ## Why it exists As systems grow, behavior becomes hard to reproduce, debug, and govern. Small changes to prompts, tools, or coordination can silently shift outcomes. MAS-Lab separates **what the system should do** from **what it actually did at runtime**, and connects them with specs, contracts, overlays, and observability. ## Who it is for **Developers** — build modular agent apps from specs instead of one-off glue. Declare agents, tools, and workflows once, then iterate safely across models and coordination patterns. **Enterprises** — roll out agentic workflows with governance, traceability, and operational control. Policies and budgets attach as overlays without rewriting core logic. **Researchers** — run controlled, multi-run campaigns; vary designs and infrastructure; replay trajectories with reproducibility built in. More on each audience in the [overview](overview.md). ## Go deeper | Topic | Where | | --- | --- | | Install and day-to-day use | [User guide](user-guide.md) | | Hands-on path (agent → team → experiment) | [Tutorials](tutorials/index.md) | | YAML manifests, schemas, contracts | [References](references/index.md) | | Design-space exploration labs | [Paper](paper/index.md) | | Releases and updates | [Blog](blog/index.md) | ## Where to start If you are new to MAS-Lab, begin with [Tutorial 0 — Environment setup](tutorials/00-environment-setup/README.md) to install the stack and run your first commands. The [Web UI](ui/index.md) lets you browse manifests and inspect runs in the browser. For context on what shipped in this release, read the [v0.1 release post](blog/posts/2026-06-17-v0-1-release/). For the research motivation, formal model, and reproducible Section 5 labs, see the [MAS-Lab paper](paper/index.md). ## Citing this work If you use MAS-Lab in research or publications, please cite the [MAS-Lab article](paper/index.md) — not only this repository. BibTeX and reproduction details are on the [Paper](paper/index.md) page.