Agent basics — AI agent development
What an AI agent actually is, how the reason–act loop works, how agents differ from chatbots and workflows, the main agent types, and the tasks where an agent is the wrong tool.
5 guides
When Not to Use an AI Agent (and What to Build Instead)
Some tasks are worse with an agent: slower, dearer and less reliable than the script they replaced. Here are the six cases we turn down, and what we recommend instead.
Types of AI Agents: Five Shapes That Cover Almost Everything
Forget the textbook taxonomy. In production there are about five agent shapes, and picking the right one early saves you a rewrite in month three.
How AI Agents Work: The Loop, Step by Step
Follow one request through a real agent — planning, tool call, error, retry and stop — and the mystery disappears. What is left is a control loop you can reason about.
AI Agent vs Chatbot: Which One Does Your Problem Actually Need?
A chatbot answers questions. An agent changes things in your systems. The difference decides your budget, your testing strategy and who has to approve the launch.
What Is an AI Agent? A Working Definition for Builders
An AI agent is a model that decides, calls real tools, reads the result and decides again. The loop is the product — and the loop is where the engineering lives.