Agents as Execution Loops

Agents operate as loops: think → decide → act → observe → repeat. Each iteration, the agent processes the current state and observations, reasons about what to do next, selects an action (or tool call), executes it, and integrates the results. This loop continues until a goal is reached or a stopping condition is met. Understanding this pattern is fundamental to debugging agent behavior, anticipating failure modes, and designing effective prompts. The loop includes decision points for stopping, handling errors, and managing context length.

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