The title compound, C(19)H(13)N(5)O(3), can be obtained from the corresponding α-amido-α-amino-nitrone in a reaction with biphenyl-2,2'-diamine. The amido-amidine core has distinctive geometrical parameters including: an outstandingly long Csp(2)-Csp(2) single bond of 1.5276 (13) Å and an amidine N-C-N angle of 130.55 (9)°. Intra-molecular N-H⋯O, N-H⋯N and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds occur. In the crystal, mol-ecules form layers parallel to (001) via weak inter-molecular C-H⋯N inter-actions. The layers are linked via N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds and π-π inter-actions along [001] [benzene-pyridine centroid-centroid distance = 3.672 (2) Å].