Course module
Agentic Systems
Agentic systems move beyond chat by combining reasoning, actions, memory, and feedback loops. The source chapter frames modern agents as closed-loop reasoning systems rather than simple prompt wrappers.
How this module was made: I study public references, then rewrite the concept in my own words with a scenario, mental model, checklist, diagram, and practice prompts. The goal is to make the idea easier to understand here, not send you away to read raw markdown.
Why this matters
Agents become risky when teams add autonomy before boundaries. Useful agent design starts with clear goals, controlled actions, state, review gates, traces, and recovery behavior.
Visual mental model
Use this diagram as the quick recall map before reading the detailed points.
Rendering diagram...
Key ideas
- Not every workflow needs an agent; some problems are safer as deterministic pipelines.
- Agency has levels: scripted chains, action selection, reasoning loops, planners, and ambient background systems.
- Reasoning models are useful for planning and decision points, while smaller models can route or summarize quickly.
- Memory must be separated into short-term context, long-term preference/state, and audit history.
- Every action should be observable, bounded, reversible where possible, and evaluated against the original goal.
Design checklist
- Define the goal and what the system is allowed to do.
- Classify actions by risk and decide where human review is required.
- Add state tracking, retries, and fallback paths.
- Log reasoning path, selected context, actions, outputs, cost, and latency.
- Evaluate task success and drift from the original goal.
Interview prompts to practice
Design an AI assistant that can perform multi-step support workflows.
How do you prevent long-running agents from drifting from the original goal?
When should a system use a planner instead of a fixed pipeline?
What observability do you need before allowing actions?
How to study this module
- Read the scenario first and explain why the design is hard.
- Use the diagram to explain the flow out loud in two minutes.
- Compare bad v1 and better v1 before jumping to tools.
- Practice the interview prompts using the checklist.
- Apply the idea to one project, diagram, or architecture review.