Agents onboarding tutorials
This section provides onboarding tutorials focused on agents. These examples help you understand key concepts of agents, from creating a new agent until deployment processes.
Start using the tutorials by choosing one, following the guided actions, and building confidence as you experiment.
All tutorials on this page come from IBM Developer. Each one includes a link that redirects you to access the content directly on IBM Developer.
Implement secure RBAC for MCP server access using context variables and On‑Behalf‑Of (OBO) flow in watsonx Orchestrate
In this tutorial, you learn how to implement context‑aware RBAC by using the OAuth2 On‑Behalf‑Of (OBO) flow to protect Model Context Protocol (MCP) server integrations in IBM watsonx Orchestrate. By combining delegated user identity, dynamic context variables, and secure token exchange, you also build compliant, least‑privilege, production‑ready agentic AI experiences that enforce authorization at every step.
Access the Implement secure RBAC for MCP server access using context variables and On‑Behalf‑Of (OBO) flow in watsonx Orchestrate tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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An active watsonx Orchestrate instance.
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A running local environment of the IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK). If you do not have an active ADK instance, review the ">getting started with ADK tutorial. This tutorial has been tested and validated with ADK version 2.2.0.
Build context-aware AI agents with watsonx Orchestrate and Astra DB
In this tutorial, explore how to build an agentic retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system that delivers contextually relevant answers about HR employee benefits. The AI agent uses documents that are extracted from the website and stored in Astra DB. When the user asks a question, the agent reformulates the question to find the most relevant documents and uses that context to generate an accurate answer.
This tutorial comes from IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK).
Access the Build context-aware AI agents with watsonx Orchestrate and Astra DB tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® instance, whether on IBM Cloud or AWS.
Creating agents using the IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK)
The following section brings together tutorials that uses IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® ADK as part of their building process.
Getting started with watsonx Orchestrate Agent Development Kit
In this tutorial, follow a step-by-step guide to install the ADK, configure your local development environment, and deploy your first agent to a watsonx Orchestrate SaaS instance, so you can start building flexible, reusable agents right away.
Access the Getting started with watsonx Orchestrate Agent Development Kit tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® instance, whether on IBM Cloud or AWS.
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Basic familiarity with terminal and bash commands.
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Basic Python and general coding skills.
IBM watsonx Orchestrate Embedded Chat Demo
In this tutorial, create a complete React application to test and demonstrate IBM watsonx Orchestrate Embedded Chat. Learn how to work with custom context variables and JWT-based authentication in a pratical, hands-on way. By the end, you have a fully working example that illustrates the core concepts and can be adapted to your own integration scenarios.
Access the IBM watsonx Orchestrate Embedded Chat Demo tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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Node.js 18+
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An IBM watsonx Orchestrate instance.
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An agent configured with context_access_enabled: true.
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(Optional) RSA keys for JWT authentication.
Orchestrating external agents using Agent to agent (A2A) standard on watsonx Orchestrate
In this tutorial, create a simple external agent, expose it using the A2A standard, and integrate it with watsonx Orchestrate. The steps are practical, by the end you will understand the A2A concept and have a working agent that you can adapt to your own use cases.
Access the Orchestrating external agents using Agent to agent (A2A) standard on watsonx Orchestrate tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK) installed locally.
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An IBM Cloud account and familiarity with IBM Cloud Code Engine.
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An IDE, such as Visual Studio Code.
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Colima local environment. Colima is an open-source tool that lets you run Linux containers on macOS (or Linux or Windows WSL2). This tutorial was tested with colima version 0.8.1.
Build an end‑to‑end agent orchestration pipeline with watsonx Orchestrate and OpenAI APIs
In this tutorial, build, deploy, and orchestrate multiple agents through a practical use case (such as an HR onboarding workflow) where multiple specialized agents collaborate through standardized interfaces. Because the OpenAI chat completion API integrates with watsonx Orchestrate, the external agents and watsonx Orchestrate are loosely coupled.
Access the Build an end‑to‑end agent orchestration pipeline with watsonx Orchestrate and OpenAI APIs}} tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK) installed locally.
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An IBM Cloud account and familiarity with IBM Cloud Code Engine.
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An IDE, such as Visual Studio Code.
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Colima local environment. Colima is an open-source tool that lets you run Linux containers on macOS (or Linux or Windows WSL2). This tutorial was tested with colima version 0.8.1.
Creating consistent evaluation workflows for AI agents
In this tutorial, learn how to configure an evaluation framework to test and benchmark your AI agents in a banking use case. This tutorial covers:
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Evaluating AI agents and tools by using generated user stories or by recording user interactions.
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Testing the AI agent in the watsonx Orchestrate platform.
Access the Creating consistent evaluation workflows for AI agents tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK) installed locally.
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® instance, whether on IBM Cloud or AWS.
Build a scheduled agentic workflow for daily notifications
In this tutorial, build an automated daily quote scheduler using the IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK). By creating reusable tools and combine them into agentic workflows that deliver a motivational quote to your inbox every morning, without writing any cron jobs. The tutorial demonstrates how to use enterprise email servers, such as Gmail, for email delivery, and how to schedule and monitor the automation within the watsonx Orchestrate user interface (UI). This brings AI orchestration, scheduling, and practical task execution together in one place.
Access the Build a scheduled agentic workflow for daily notifications tutorial and start your learning.
Prerequisities
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® Agent Development Kit (ADK) installed locally.
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IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® instance, whether on IBM Cloud or AWS.