Lesson deck
Agentic patterns: ReAct, planning and memory flashcards
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- Front
- What is the ReAct pattern?
- Back
- An explicit loop of Thought, Action (a tool call) and Observation (the tool result), repeated until the goal is met or a stopping control fires.
- Front
- Plan-then-execute vs reactive planning: trade-offs?
- Back
- Plan-then-execute is predictable and reviewable up front but brittle when the world deviates (needs checkpoints and replanning). Reactive adapts to each observation but costs more calls and can wander.
- Front
- What stopping controls does an agent loop need?
- Back
- A checkable done criterion, step cap, time and cost budgets, loop detection, escalation to a human when ambiguous, and tracing.
- Front
- How do you detect an agent stuck in a loop?
- Back
- Watch for the same tool called with the same arguments again, or several steps with no new information. Then stop, return a partial result and ask the user.
- Front
- Short-term vs long-term agent memory, and one risk of long-term?
- Back
- Short-term is the current context and scratchpad. Long-term is stored outside and retrieved when relevant. Risks include privacy of stored personal data and stale facts.
- Front
- Workflow vs agent, and when to prefer a workflow?
- Back
- A workflow follows predefined code paths; an agent lets the model direct its own steps and tools. Prefer the simpler design when the path is predictable, since agents cost more and can compound errors.