AI Agent Basics Skill | Agent Skills

AI Agent Basics

Build production-grade AI agents with modern architectures and patterns.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when:

Designing new AI agent systems
Implementing ReAct or Plan-and-Execute patterns
Building autonomous task-solving agents
Integrating cognitive loops into applications

Parameter Schema

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description | Default | |-----------|------|----------|-------------|---------| | task | string | Yes | What agent capability to build | - | | architecture | enum | No | single, multi, hybrid | single | | framework | enum | No | langchain, langgraph, custom | langgraph | | complexity | enum | No | basic, intermediate, advanced | intermediate |

Quick Start

# Basic ReAct Agent
from langgraph.prebuilt import create_react_agent
from langchain_anthropic import ChatAnthropic

llm = ChatAnthropic(model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514")
agent = create_react_agent(llm, tools=[search, calculator])
result = await agent.ainvoke({"messages": [("user", "What is 25 * 4?")]})

Core Patterns

1. ReAct Agent

# Thought → Action → Observation loop
graph = StateGraph(AgentState)
graph.add_node("think", reason_node)
graph.add_node("act", action_node)
graph.add_node("observe", observation_node)

2. Plan-and-Execute

# Create plan → Execute steps → Verify
planner = create_planner(llm)
executor = create_executor(llm, tools)

3. Reflexion

# Execute → Reflect → Improve
agent_with_reflection = add_reflection_layer(base_agent)

Troubleshooting

| Issue | Solution | |-------|----------| | Agent loops forever | Add max_iterations limit | | Wrong tool selected | Improve tool descriptions | | Context too large | Implement summarization | | Slow responses | Use streaming |

Best Practices

Start with simple single-agent before multi-agent
Always add circuit breakers (max iterations)
Use verbose mode for debugging
Implement human-in-the-loop for critical decisions

Related Skills

llm-integration - LLM API configuration
tool-calling - Function calling implementation
agent-memory - Memory systems

Agent Skills: AI Agent Basics

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