Mistral AI, a rival to OpenAI, Anthropic PBC, Google LLC and others, has jumped into agentic AI development with the launch of a new API. The new Agents API equips developers with powerful tools for building sophisticated AI agents based on Mistral AI’s LLms, which can autonomously plan and carry out complex, multistep tasks using external tools. Among its features, the API integrates server-side conversation management, a Python-based code interpreter, web search, image generation and document retrieval capabilities. It also supports AI agent orchestration, and it’s compatible with the emerging Model Context Protocol that aims to standardize the way agents interact with other applications. With its API, Mistral AI is keeping pace with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic, which are also laser-focused on enabling the emergence of AI agents that can perform tasks on behalf of humans with minimal supervision, in an effort to turbocharge business automation. The API boasts dozens of useful “connectors” that should make it simpler to build some very capable AI agents. For instance, the Python Code Interpreter provides a way for agents to execute Python code in a secure, sandboxed environment, while the image generation tool powered by Black Forest Labs Inc.’s FLUX1.1 [pro] Ultra model means they’ll have powerful picture-generating capabilities. A premium version of web search provides access to a standard search engine, plus the Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press news agencies, so AI agents will be able to access up-to-date information about the real world. Other features include a document library that uses hosted retrieval-augmented generation from user-uploaded documents. In other words, Mistral’s AI agents will be able to read external documents and perform actions with them. The API also includes an “agent handoffs” mechanism that allows multiple agents to work together. One agent will be able to delegate a task to another, more specialized agent. According to Mistral, the result will be a “seamless chain of actions,” with a single request able to trigger multiple agents into action so they can collaborate on complex tasks. The Agents API supports “stateful conversations” too, which means they’re able to maintain context over time by remembering the user’s earlier inputs.