Learning Path
s01 to s17: Progressive Agent Harness Design
Layer Legend
The Agent LoopOne Loop Is All You Need
“The smallest useful agent is a loop that calls the model, runs tools, and feeds results back.”
Learn MoreTool UseAdd a Tool, Add Just One Line
“The loop stays stable while capabilities register into a dispatch table.”
Learn MorePermissionCheck Permissions Before Execution
“Dangerous actions need a harness decision point before the shell runs.”
Learn MoreHooksHang on the Loop, Don't Write into It
“Cross-cutting behavior belongs around the loop, not tangled inside it.”
Learn MoreTodoWriteAn Agent Without a Plan Drifts Off Course
“Explicit plans keep long-running work visible and correctable.”
Learn MoreSubagentBreak Large Tasks into Small Ones with Clean Context
“Subagents give each subtask a clean message history while preserving the main thread.”
Learn MoreSkill LoadingLoad Only When Needed
“Inject specialized knowledge only when the task actually needs it.”
Learn MoreContext CompactContext Will Fill Up
“Compression keeps the conversation usable when the context window gets crowded.”
Learn MoreMemoryKeep a Layer That Doesn't Lose Details
“Some facts should survive summarization and future sessions.”
Learn MoreTask SystemBreak Big Goals into Small Tasks
“A task graph turns vague goals into ordered, observable work.”
Learn MoreBackground TasksSlow Operations Go to the Background
“The agent can keep reasoning while slow work completes elsewhere.”
Learn MoreCron SchedulerProducing Work on a Schedule
“Recurring work should be created by the harness, not remembered by the model.”
Learn MoreAgent Team RuntimePersistent Teammates, Atomic Claims, Task-Bound Worktrees
“Persistent teammates can reliably discover and execute parallel work when the runtime owns messaging, atomic claims, and task-bound working directories.”
Learn MoreMCP ToolsExternal Tools, Standard Protocol
“External services can become agent tools through a standard discovery and call protocol.”
Learn MoreIntegrated HarnessMany Mechanisms, One Loop
“The integrated harness is still one loop, surrounded by the systems introduced across the course.”
Learn MoreWorkflow RuntimeScripts Own Fixed Orchestration
“When orchestration has a fixed shape, code can make it parallel, deterministic, and resumable.”
Learn MoreGoal LoopIndependent Evaluation Decides When to Stop
“A durable goal keeps the loop working until an independent evaluator finds the completion condition satisfied in the conversation.”
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