← AI Automation & Agents

Lesson 3 — When You Actually Need an Agent

A workflow follows your path. An agent picks its own. Only pay for that when the path really varies.

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  • Default to a deterministic workflow; an agent is justified only when the path truly varies per input
  • Learn the four patterns: Reflection, Tool Use, Planning, Multi-Agent — and start with Tool Use
  • Write tool descriptions as policy: inputs, output shape, a 'use this when' clause and the do-not cases
  • Always set a hard step cap, a token budget and an explicit stopping condition before you run an agent live

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