Patterns
These are the core patterns for building agentic systems — how agents coordinate work, reason through problems, use tools, and produce output. They sit between agent creation (how agents are structured) and evaluation (how output quality is measured).
The four categories below move from the outside in: how work flows between components, how agents think, how agents interact with the world, and how output is shaped.
Orchestration
How agents and steps coordinate. These patterns define the flow of work — who does what, in what order, with what control.
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Orchestrator | Dynamic task delegation to specialized workers |
| Pipeline | Fixed sequential steps with validation gates |
| Parallel | Concurrent tasks with aggregation |
| Router | One-shot classification and dispatch |
| Evaluator-Optimizer | Generator + critic in a refinement loop |
| Human-in-the-Loop | Checkpoints for human approval |
Reasoning & Planning
How agents think. These patterns define the reasoning strategy — single-pass, iterative, planned, or self-correcting.
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Chain of Thought | Step-by-step reasoning in a single pass |
| ReAct | Thought-action-observation loop with tool use |
| Plan-and-Execute | Upfront planning then step-by-step execution |
| Reflection | Self-critique and revision loop |
Tool Integration
How agents interact with the external world. These patterns define how agents discover, select, and use tools.
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Tool Router | Select and invoke the right tool via function calling |
| RAG | Retrieval-augmented generation from knowledge bases |
| Code Execution | Generate and run code in a sandbox |
| MCP | Standardized protocol for dynamic tool discovery |
Output
How agents format and validate responses. These patterns define the shape, safety, and delivery of output.
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Structured Output | Schema-constrained typed output |
| Streaming | Progressive token and event delivery |
| Guardrails | Safety, compliance, and quality validation |
| Citation | Source attribution and grounding |