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OpenAI Agents and LangGraph HTTP templates have no system prompt #810

@aidandaly24

Description

@aidandaly24

Description

The OpenAI Agents and LangGraph HTTP agent templates ship with no system prompt. The agent has zero baseline instructions — it doesn't know it's supposed to be helpful, use tools, or behave in any particular way.

The Strands and Google ADK templates both include a system prompt ("You are a helpful assistant. Use tools when appropriate."), but OpenAI Agents and LangGraph were missed.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. agentcore create --name test --defaults --framework OpenAIAgents (or LangChain_LangGraph)
  2. Inspect app/test/main.py
  3. Observe there is no instructions= on the OpenAI Agent() constructor, or no prompt= on create_react_agent()

Expected Behavior

All templates should include a baseline system prompt consistent with the other frameworks, so agents have a default personality and know to use available tools.

Actual Behavior

  • OpenAI Agents: Agent() constructor has no instructions= parameter — the agent runs with no system prompt.
  • LangGraph: create_react_agent() has no prompt= parameter — same issue.

Additional Context

This is inconsistent with the Strands and Google ADK templates which both include:

"You are a helpful assistant. Use tools when appropriate."

Without a system prompt, the agent's behavior is unpredictable and it may not reliably use the tools registered to it.

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