Reasoning models are a new class of large language models trained with reinforcement learning to think before they answer. They produce a long internal chain of thought before responding. Examples of reasoning models include:
OpenAI o1-pro and o3-mini
Claude 3.7 sonnet in extended-thinking mode
Gemini 2.0 flash thinking
DeepSeek-R1
Reasoning models deeply consider and think through a plan before taking action. Its all about what the model does before it starts generating a response. Reasoning models excel at single-shot use-cases. They’re perfect for solving hard problems (coding, math, physics) that don’t require multiple turns, or calling tools sequentially.
from agno.agent import Agentfrom agno.models.openai import OpenAIChatfrom agno.tools.duckduckgo import DuckDuckGoToolsagent = Agent( model=OpenAIChat(id="o3-mini"), tools=[DuckDuckGoTools(search=True, news=True)], instructions="Use tables to display data.", show_tool_calls=True, markdown=True,)agent.print_response("Write a report comparing recent developments in renewable energy vs traditional energy", stream=True)
from agno.agent import Agentfrom agno.models.openai import OpenAIChatfrom agno.tools.duckduckgo import DuckDuckGoToolsagent = Agent( model=OpenAIChat(id="o3-mini", reasoning_effort="high"), tools=[DuckDuckGoTools(search=True, news=True)], instructions="Use tables to display data.", show_tool_calls=True, markdown=True,)agent.print_response("Write a report comparing recent developments in renewable energy vs traditional energy", stream=True)
When you run the DeepSeek-R1 Agent above, you’ll notice that the response is not that great. This is because DeepSeek-R1 is great at solving problems but not that great at responding in a natural way (like claude sonnet or gpt-4.5).What if we wanted to use a Reasoning Model to reason but a different model to generate the response?Great news! Agno allows you to use a Reasoning Model and a different Response Model together. By using a separate model for reasoning and a different model for responding, we can have the best of both worlds.