Learning to build AI agents: native SDKs first, or straight to LangChain?
An experienced backend developer starting to build production AI agents asks whether to begin with frontier-model SDKs or jump straight to LangChain. The case for native SDKs first is that a framework hides exactly what a beginner needs to learn — prompts, retries, tool calls, and how context flows — while a small raw-SDK agent makes those pain points visible. Only after feeling them does it become clear which framework features save time and which are just ceremony.