Build an AI Agent Workshop: Safety-First Design
By Dorian Laurenceau
Updated
📅 Last reviewed: April 24, 2026. Updated with April 2026 findings and community feedback.
Build an AI Agent: Safety-First Workshop
An AI agent without safety guardrails is a liability. In this workshop, you will build a complete agent system, not just the reasoning loop, but the safety infrastructure that makes it production-worthy: tool whitelisting, human confirmation, cost controls, and output validation.
Workshop Goal
By the end, you will have built an agent that:
- →Takes a user question and plans a series of actions
- →Uses 3 tools: web search, calculator, and document lookup
- →Requires human confirmation for any action that modifies data
- →Stops after 7 iterations or $0.50 in API costs
- →Validates its final answer against observed evidence
Step 1: Define the Agent Architecture
Building the Agent Step by Step
From system prompt to safety layer
The System Prompt
You are a research assistant. You help users find accurate information.
Available tools:
1. search_web(query) - Search the internet. Use for current events or facts.
2. calculator(expression) - Evaluate math expressions. Use for any calculation.
3. lookup_docs(query) - Search internal documents. Use for company-specific info.
Rules:
- Always explain your reasoning before acting
- Use the minimum number of steps
- Never guess when you can look up
- If uncertain after 5 steps, say so honestly💡 Rules in the system prompt act as behavioral guardrails.
Step 2: Implement Safety Layers
Safety Layer Implementation
← Scroll horizontally →
Why is human-in-the-loop important for AI agents?
Step 3: Testing Your Agent
Agent Testing Strategy
Verify behavior before deployment
Happy Path Testing
Test: 'What is the current population of Tokyo?'
Expected: search_web -> extract number -> answer
Actual: Verify tool selection and answer accuracy💡 Start with simple cases to verify the basic loop works.
Common Agent Anti-Patterns
Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 5.
AI Agent Workshop Check
0 / 5 answered
Q1.What is the most common source of agent failures in production?
5 questions remaining
What's Next
You have built an AI agent with proper safety guardrails. In the next module, you will explore AI image generation, understanding diffusion models and learning to prompt for visual content.
Continue to AI Image Generation and Diffusion Models to enter the world of visual AI.
Module 6 — AI Agents & ReAct
Create autonomous agents that reason and take actions.
Dorian Laurenceau
Full-Stack Developer & Learning DesignerFull-stack web developer and learning designer. I spent 4 years as a freelance full-stack developer and 4 years teaching React, JavaScript, HTML/CSS and WordPress to adult learners. Today I design learning paths in web development and AI, grounded in learning science. I founded learn-prompting.fr to make AI practical and accessible, and built the Bluff app to gamify political transparency.
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FAQ
What will I learn in this AI Agents guide?+
Hands-on workshop to build an AI agent with the ReAct pattern. Includes tool integration, safety guardrails, human-in-the-loop confirmation, and practical deployment tips.