Agentic Systems Vocabulary

an AI system capable of autonomous action to achieve goals

“The agent decomposed the goal into steps and executed them.”

the ability of an AI to creatively utilize external functions or APIs

“Tool use allows the LLM to browse the web or calculate math.”

a structured way for LLMs to invoke code functions with specific arguments

“The model used function calling to get the current weather.”

Reasoning + Acting; a pattern where models think before executing actions

“ReAct prompting helps agents solve multi-step problems reliably.”

the ability to formulate a sequence of actions to achieve a future goal

“Strategic planning lets the agent handle complex, long-horizon tasks.”

the process of analyzing past actions to improve future performance

“Through reflection, the agent corrected its own coding error.”

systems for storing and retrieving information over time

“Long-term memory allows the agent to recall user preferences.”

systems involving multiple interacting agents with distinct roles

“A multi-agent team of research, writing, and editing agents wrote the paper.”