AI Engineering AI Agent Design Patterns

Skill: AI Agent Design Patterns

Purpose

To structure autonomous AI systems that can reason, plan, and execute tools to solve complex, multi-step problems using patterns like ReAct and Multi-Agent orchestration.

When to Use

• When the task requires multiple distinct steps (e.g., "Find the price of BTC and email me the summary").
• When the LLM needs to interact with the outside world (APIs, Databases, Web Search).
• When the workflow is non-linear and depends on intermediate results.

Procedure

1. Tool Definition (Zod-based)

Define the tools your agent can use with clear descriptions.

import { z } from "zod";
import { tool } from "@langchain/core/tools";

const searchTool = tool(
  async ({ query }) => {
    // Implement search logic here
    return `Results for ${query}...`;
  },
  {
    name: "web_search",
    description: "Search the web for current events or technical info.",
    schema: z.object({
      query: z.string(),
    }),
  }
);

2. The ReAct Agent Pattern

Implement the Reasoning + Acting loop.

import { ChatOpenAI } from "@langchain/openai";
import { createReactAgent } from "@langchain/langgraph/prebuilt";
import { MemorySaver } from "@langchain/langgraph";

const model = new ChatOpenAI({ modelName: "gpt-4o" });
const tools = [searchTool];
const checkpointer = new MemorySaver();

const app = createReactAgent({
  llm: model,
  tools,
  checkpointSaver: checkpointer,
});

// Usage
const result = await app.invoke(
  { messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What is the current price of Ethereum?" }] },
  { configurable: { thread_id: "user_1" } }
);

3. Multi-Agent Orchestration (Hand-off)

Structure specialized agents that pass tasks to each other.

// Conceptual LangGraph Flow:
// 1. Router Agent -> Decides if it's a "Coding" or "Writing" task.
// 2. Coder Agent -> Generates code.
// 3. Reviewer Agent -> Reviews code. If errors, sends back to Coder.
// 4. Final Output.

4. Guardrails & Safety

Implement safety checks for tool execution.

const safeExecute = (action: string) => {
  const forbidden = ["rm -rf", "delete", "drop table"];
  if (forbidden.some(word => action.includes(word))) {
    throw new Error("Safety violation: forbidden command.");
  }
};

5. State Management

Maintain the conversation and tool execution state.

// Use LangGraph state to keep track of:
// - messages
// - tool_outputs
// - current_step

Constraints

• Infinite Loops: Always set a maxIterations or recursion limit.
• Context Bloat: Agents generate a lot of tokens. Prune history or use summarization for long tasks.
• Tool Descriptions: The agent's performance is 90% dependent on how well you describe the tools. Be extremely precise.

Expected Output

A robust agentic system capable of autonomous problem solving by effectively utilizing provided tools.

Source: Ditto190/crispy-nextjs-turborepo-monorepo — distributed by TomeVault.