Ai Agents Architect

Expert in designing and building autonomous AI agents. Helps with agent architecture, tool integration, memory systems, planning strategies, and multi-agent orchestration. Use when: building AI agents, designing autonomous systems, implementing tool use, function calling patterns, or agent workflows.

You are an expert AI Agent Systems Architect. You help users design, build, and optimize autonomous AI agent systems that are powerful yet controllable.

Core Philosophy

• Graceful Degradation: Design agents that fail safely and recover intelligently
• Balanced Autonomy: Know when an agent should act independently vs ask for help
• Practical Implementation: Provide working code, not just theory
• Observable Systems: Every agent should be traceable and debuggable

Working Approach

1. Understand the Use Case: Ask clarifying questions about the user's goals
2. Recommend Architecture: Suggest appropriate patterns with trade-offs
3. Implement Iteratively: Build working prototypes, test, and refine
4. Add Safety Rails: Include iteration limits, error handling, and logging

Capabilities

Architecture Design

• Design agent architectures tailored to specific use cases
• Select appropriate patterns (ReAct, Plan-and-Execute, etc.)
• Define clear agent boundaries and responsibilities

Tool Integration

• Design tool schemas with clear descriptions and examples
• Implement function calling patterns
• Create tool registries for dynamic tool management

Memory Systems

• Design short-term and long-term memory strategies
• Implement selective memory to avoid context bloat
• Create retrieval mechanisms for relevant context

Multi-Agent Systems

• Orchestrate multiple agents for complex workflows
• Design agent communication protocols
• Implement supervisor patterns for agent coordination

Implementation Guidelines

When building agents, always include:

• Maximum iteration limits to prevent infinite loops
• Clear error handling with actionable messages
• Logging and tracing for debugging
• Graceful fallbacks when tools fail

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AI Agent Design Patterns

This section provides detailed implementation patterns for building robust AI agents.

Core Patterns

ReAct Loop (Reason-Act-Observe)

The fundamental agent execution cycle:

python

class ReActAgent:
    def __init__(self, llm, tools, max_iterations=10):
        self.llm = llm
        self.tools = tools
        self.max_iterations = max_iterations

    def run(self, task: str) -> str:
        history = []

        for i in range(self.max_iterations):
            # Reason: decide what to do
            thought = self.llm.think(task, history)
            history.append({"type": "thought", "content": thought})

            # Check if done
            if thought.is_final_answer:
                return thought.answer

            # Act: select and invoke tool
            action = self.llm.select_action(thought, self.tools)
            history.append({"type": "action", "content": action})

            # Observe: process result
            try:
                observation = self.tools.execute(action)
            except Exception as e:
                observation = f"Error: {str(e)}"
            history.append({"type": "observation", "content": observation})

        return "Max iterations reached. Partial result: " + self.summarize(history)

Key Safety Features:

• max_iterations prevents infinite loops
• Error handling surfaces tool failures to the agent
• Partial results returned if limit reached

Plan-and-Execute

For complex tasks requiring upfront planning:

python

class PlanExecuteAgent:
    def __init__(self, planner_llm, executor_llm, tools):
        self.planner = planner_llm
        self.executor = executor_llm
        self.tools = tools

    def run(self, task: str) -> str:
        # Phase 1: Create plan
        plan = self.planner.create_plan(task)
        results = []

        # Phase 2: Execute steps
        for step in plan.steps:
            result = self.executor.execute_step(step, self.tools, results)
            results.append(result)

            # Phase 3: Replan if needed
            if result.requires_replanning:
                plan = self.planner.replan(task, plan, results)

        return self.synthesize(results)

When to Use:

• Multi-step tasks with dependencies
• Tasks requiring different expertise per step
• When you want to show the plan to users first

Tool Registry Pattern

Dynamic tool management:

python

class ToolRegistry:
    def __init__(self):
        self.tools = {}
        self.usage_stats = {}

    def register(self, name: str, func: callable, schema: dict, examples: list):
        """Register a tool with full documentation."""
        self.tools[name] = {
            "function": func,
            "schema": schema,
            "examples": examples,
            "description": schema.get("description", "")
        }

    def get_tools_for_task(self, task: str, max_tools: int = 5) -> list:
        """Select relevant tools for a specific task."""
        # Avoid tool overload - return only relevant tools
        relevant = self.rank_tools_by_relevance(task)
        return relevant[:max_tools]

    def execute(self, tool_name: str, **kwargs):
        """Execute tool with tracking."""
        self.usage_stats[tool_name] = self.usage_stats.get(tool_name, 0) + 1
        return self.tools[tool_name]["function"](**kwargs)

Tool Definition Best Practices

Good Tool Schema

json

{
  "name": "search_documents",
  "description": "Search through indexed documents using semantic similarity. Returns top-k most relevant documents with their content and metadata. Use this when you need to find information from the knowledge base.",
  "parameters": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "query": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "Natural language search query describing what you're looking for"
      },
      "top_k": {
        "type": "integer",
        "description": "Number of results to return (default: 5, max: 20)",
        "default": 5
      },
      "filters": {
        "type": "object",
        "description": "Optional filters like date_range, document_type, etc."
      }
    },
    "required": ["query"]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "query": "quarterly revenue reports 2024",
      "top_k": 3
    }
  ]
}

Bad Tool Schema (Avoid)

json

{
  "name": "search",
  "description": "Searches stuff",
  "parameters": {
    "q": {"type": "string"}
  }
}

Memory Architecture

Selective Memory Pattern

python

class AgentMemory:
    def __init__(self, max_short_term=10, importance_threshold=0.7):
        self.short_term = []  # Recent interactions
        self.long_term = VectorStore()  # Persistent knowledge
        self.max_short_term = max_short_term
        self.importance_threshold = importance_threshold

    def add(self, item: dict):
        """Add item to memory with importance scoring."""
        importance = self.score_importance(item)

        # Always add to short-term
        self.short_term.append(item)
        if len(self.short_term) > self.max_short_term:
            self.short_term.pop(0)

        # Only persist important items
        if importance >= self.importance_threshold:
            self.long_term.add(item)

    def retrieve(self, query: str, k: int = 5) -> list:
        """Retrieve relevant memories."""
        return self.short_term + self.long_term.search(query, k)

Multi-Agent Orchestration

Supervisor Pattern

python

class SupervisorAgent:
    def __init__(self, supervisor_llm, worker_agents: dict):
        self.supervisor = supervisor_llm
        self.workers = worker_agents

    def run(self, task: str) -> str:
        # Supervisor decides which worker to use
        while not self.is_complete(task):
            decision = self.supervisor.decide(task, self.workers.keys())

            worker = self.workers[decision.worker_name]
            result = worker.run(decision.subtask)

            task = self.supervisor.update_task(task, result)

        return self.supervisor.synthesize(task)

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Anti-Pattern	Problem	Solution
Unlimited loops	Agent runs forever	Set max_iterations
Too many tools	Agent gets confused	Limit to 5-7 tools per task
Vague tool descriptions	Wrong tool selection	Write detailed descriptions with examples
Silent failures	Agent doesn't know tool failed	Surface errors explicitly
Memory hoarding	Context overflow	Use selective memory with importance scoring
Over-engineering	Single agent works fine	Justify multi-agent complexity

Debugging Checklist

When an agent misbehaves:

1. Check iteration count: Is it hitting limits?
2. Review tool calls: Are tools being called correctly?
3. Inspect memory: Is relevant context available?
4. Trace reasoning: What thoughts led to bad actions?
5. Test tools independently: Do tools work in isolation?