Due Date or Timeline - Migration from Old Foundry to New Foundry

Question

Due Date or Timeline - Migration from Old Foundry to New Foundry

Yogesh Dhavale (LTIMindtree Limited) 20 Microsoft External Staff

Hi Team ,

To give you all a background that we have created Agents and MultiAgentic Solution in old foundry but now we can see that new foundry toggle button is available .Just wanted to understand that is there any due date or timeline that we need to migrate from old foundry to new foundry Or there is no immediate plan yet .

We have found the article below :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/agents/how-to/migrate?tabs=python

Also we can see that lot of changes from old foundry to new foundry .Is there any other guidelines or steps to do it smoothly

Also we have connected agents in old foundry but not in new foundry so what is the alternative we can do that

Thanmayi Godithi 11,825 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-17T09:00:15.58+00:00

Hi Yogesh Dhavale (LTIMindtree Limited) ,

At this time, there is no published announcement that specifies a mandatory migration deadline or retirement date for the classic/old Foundry Agent experience.

I recommend monitoring Azure AI Foundry release notes and official documentation for any future deprecation or retirement notices. [Migrate to...soft Learn | Learn.Microsoft.com]

Regarding migration, Microsoft has published a migration guide that explains the transition from classic agents/Assistants API to the new Foundry Agent Service and highlights the main architectural changes (Threads → Conversations, Runs → Responses, classic agents → new agent versions). A migration tool is also available to help automate parts of the code migration process.

For Connected Agents specifically, the migration guidance indicates that Connected Agents are not currently available in the new Foundry Agent Service. The documented recommendation is to use the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) capability as the alternative approach.

To ensure a smooth migration, consider:

Reviewing the migration guide and mapping your existing agent features to the new architecture.

Testing agent behavior in the new environment before production cutover.

Verifying conversation/context retention and tool functionality after migration.

Evaluating replacements for any features that are not yet supported in the new service, such as Connected Agents.

Reference: Migrate to the new Foundry Agent Service [Migrate to...soft Learn | Learn.Microsoft.com]

1 answer

Your answer

Thanmayi Godithi 11,825 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-17T09:00:15.58+00:00

Hi Yogesh Dhavale (LTIMindtree Limited) ,

At this time, there is no published announcement that specifies a mandatory migration deadline or retirement date for the classic/old Foundry Agent experience.

I recommend monitoring Azure AI Foundry release notes and official documentation for any future deprecation or retirement notices. [Migrate to...soft Learn | Learn.Microsoft.com]

Regarding migration, Microsoft has published a migration guide that explains the transition from classic agents/Assistants API to the new Foundry Agent Service and highlights the main architectural changes (Threads → Conversations, Runs → Responses, classic agents → new agent versions). A migration tool is also available to help automate parts of the code migration process.

For Connected Agents specifically, the migration guidance indicates that Connected Agents are not currently available in the new Foundry Agent Service. The documented recommendation is to use the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) capability as the alternative approach.

To ensure a smooth migration, consider:

Reviewing the migration guide and mapping your existing agent features to the new architecture.

Testing agent behavior in the new environment before production cutover.

Verifying conversation/context retention and tool functionality after migration.

Evaluating replacements for any features that are not yet supported in the new service, such as Connected Agents.

Reference: Migrate to the new Foundry Agent Service [Migrate to...soft Learn | Learn.Microsoft.com]

Answer 1

Yes—there are migration timelines, and some parts have firm retirement dates.

August 26, 2026 — the Assistants API sunsets. Workloads using classic agents should move to the Microsoft Foundry Agents service.
May 30, 2026 — the azure-ai-inference package retires. SDK-based inference workloads should move to the openai package.
If hosted agents were deployed from the initial public preview backend, those deployments are supported only until August 20, 2026 and aren't migrated automatically. They must be redeployed on the new backend.

For planning, that means there is not an indefinite period to stay on the old experience. Migration should be scheduled before the relevant retirement date for each workload.

For a smoother migration, use this path:

Map old concepts to new concepts
- Threads → Conversations
- Runs → Responses
- Assistants / agents → Agents (new)
- Assistants API → Responses API (Agents v2)
- Hub + Azure OpenAI + Azure AI Services → Foundry resource with projects
Update SDK and client usage
- Move toward azure-ai-projects 2.x and OpenAI() against the project endpoint model described in the current platform.
- In the new API, conversations and responses use the OpenAI client, while agent creation and versioning remain on the project client.
- A common migration issue is calling conversations on the project client. In Python, use project.get_openai_client() and then call openai.conversations.create().
Review feature differences before cutover
- Some tools carry over directly, but not all.
- Connected Agents in classic are not available in the new experience.
- The documented recommendation is to use A2A (Agent to Agent) instead.
- Azure Functions is available in classic but not in the new experience.
- Web Search is available in the new experience.
Plan for data/state differences
- Old thread state is not migrated by the migration tool.
- Past runs, threads, and messages do not move over. New conversations must be started after migration.
Validate models and package versions early
- If responses.create() raises a model error, verify the model name in the project and check region availability.
- For JavaScript, older @azure/ai-projects versions can cause getOpenAIClient is not a function; update to @azure/ai-projects@2.3.0 or later.

For the specific question about Connected Agents:

In classic: Connected Agents = Yes (Public Preview)
In new Foundry: Connected Agents = No
Recommended alternative: A2A tool

So the replacement path for connected agents is to redesign that part of the solution around Agent to Agent (A2A) in the new Foundry experience.

If the current solution includes classic agents, connected agents, or older SDK patterns, the practical migration sequence is:

Inventory classic agents, tools, and SDKs in use.
Identify any dependency on Assistants API, Connected Agents, or preview hosted-agent backend.
Replace classic agent patterns with Conversations/Responses and new agent versions.
Replace Connected Agents with A2A.
Test with new conversations rather than expecting historical thread state to move.
Complete migration before the applicable 2026 retirement date.

References: