Why Agents Matter
Think about how you solve a complex problem. You do not just think about it — you:
- →Reason about what to do next
- →Act by looking something up, running a calculation, or asking someone
- →Observe the result
- →Repeat until the problem is solved
This is exactly what ReAct agents do. They are AI systems that can plan, use tools, learn from feedback, and iterate toward a solution.
The ReAct Loop
Agents vs Chains: When to Use What
Tools: The Agent's Hands
Safety and Guardrails
- →Tool whitelisting — Only give agents access to tools they need. A customer support agent does not need file system access.
- →Confirmation for destructive actions — Require human approval before sending emails, making purchases, or deleting data.
- →Iteration limits — Set a maximum number of ReAct loops (typically 5-10) to prevent infinite loops.
- →Output validation — Check the agent's final answer against the observations to detect hallucination.
- →Cost controls — Each loop is an API call. Set budget limits to prevent runaway costs.
Test Your Understanding
Next Steps
You now understand the ReAct framework. In the next workshop, you will build your own AI agent with tool use and safety guardrails.
- →AI Agent Architecture Patterns — The 5 workflow patterns for building effective agents
Continue to the workshop: Build an AI Agent with Safety to create an autonomous agent.
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
Step 2: Implement Safety Layers
Step 3: Testing Your Agent
Common Agent Anti-Patterns
Test Your Understanding
Next Steps
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.