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60 Days of Production AI Systems · chapter 6 of 10

Agentic AI Foundations

Outcomes, loops, planning, tools, memory and reflection: what makes an agent more than a prompt.
9 min in total
Chapter guide · 6 min readThe hard part of building an agent is not making it act. It is making it stop.The whole chapter in one read. Then go part by part below.
  1. 01

    Day 31 · Explainer · 1 min read

    Why agents need outcomes, boundaries, and stop conditions

    Why agents need clear outcomes, boundaries, budgets, and stop conditions before autonomy.

  2. 02

    Day 32 · Explainer · 2 min read

    Why agent behavior is a loop, not a single prompt

    Why reliable agent behavior comes from loop design, not a single clever prompt.

  3. 03

    Day 33 · Explainer · 1 min read

    Why planning reduces wasted AI actions

    Why planning matters when actions have cost, risk, or dependencies.

  4. 04

    Day 34 · Explainer · 2 min read

    Why tool access is where AI becomes operational risk

    Why giving AI tools means designing permissions, observability, rollback, and approval paths.

  5. 05

    Day 35 · Explainer · 2 min read

    Why agent memory is not one database

    Why useful agent memory has to be separated, scoped, and governed.

  6. 06

    Day 36 · Explainer · 1 min read

    Why reflection should change the next action

    Why reflection is valuable only when it decides whether to revise, retry, escalate, or stop.

    On the map: Agent