Core Agent Concepts: Agent, Environment, Action, Observation, Goal, LLMs, Tools
~12 min read
The 7 foundational terms every agent conversation starts with — what an agent actually is, the world it operates in, and the basic loop of acting and observing.
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Key points
- •Agent: an autonomous AI entity that perceives, reasons, and acts toward a goal
- •Environment: the world or system the agent operates in and interacts with
- •Action / Observation: the two halves of the agent's core loop — acting on the environment, then reading back what changed
- •Goal: the desired outcome that gives the agent's actions a way to be judged as useful or not
- •LLMs and Tools: the reasoning engine and the means of acting on the world beyond just generating text