Recommended approach for deterministic multi-step conversations in Agents SDK

[Shivam Bhardwaj (Shivam-a0621)]

Hi,

We are revisiting our migration from Bot Framework SDK to the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK and would like some guidance on the recommended approach today for implementing deterministic, multi-step conversational workflows.

Our existing bot makes extensive use of WaterfallDialog and DialogState for flows where we:

• Ask the user for information across multiple turns
• Validate each response
• Persist values in conversation state
• Move sequentially through multiple steps
• Branch conditionally based on user input
• Resume the workflow correctly on subsequent turns

From the discussion in #344, we understood that the recommendation is generally to move away from the Bot Framework Dialogs model and use an orchestrator for deterministic flows.

Could someone clarify what the recommended architecture/pattern is with the current Agents SDK?