A parts list is not an architecture
A viral infographic frames agent-building as eight sequential steps. It names real building blocks — prompt, model, tools, memory, evals — but omits the one thing that makes a system agentic at all: the loop. An agent runs a closed cycle until a stop condition is met:
- Gather context — prompt, retrieval, state, files, history.
- Take action — structured tool call, run code.
- Verify — tests, checks, self-critique. On failure, back to step 1.
Two corrections up front
- Workflow or agent? Decide first. A fixed workflow is often cheaper, safer and faster than full autonomy. Add agency only when the task is open-ended and the cost earns its keep.
- Evals first, not last. They are the demo-versus-production line. And context engineering — curating what enters the model each turn — is the decisive production discipline for 2025/26.
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