Collaboration & Agents Vocabulary

improving an output through repeated cycles of feedback, revision, and checking

“Iterative refinement turned the rough outline into a concise board memo over three passes.”

breaking a complex goal into smaller parts that can be completed and verified separately

“Task decomposition separated research, calculation, drafting, and fact-checking.”

a saved or reviewable state where progress is assessed before work continues

“At the checkpoint, a reviewer approved the extracted figures before drafting began.”

a model-driven system that pursues a goal through decisions, tool use, and maintained state within set limits

“The travel agent compared routes, checked availability, and paused before making a purchase.”

a structured request from a model for the host system to run an external function or service

“The model issued a tool call for current weather, and the application returned the result.”

coordinating models, tools, data, and workflow steps so they operate as one system

“Orchestration routed invoices through extraction, validation, and human review.”

assigning a bounded task and its authority to another person or agent

“The lead agent used delegation to give one subagent the source-checking task.”

a secondary agent given a specialized part of a larger task

“A subagent reviewed security claims while the main agent assembled the report.”

the transfer of responsibility, context, and work products from one participant to another

“The handoff included the draft, open questions, sources, and the next required decision.”

a control that requires explicit permission before a consequential action can proceed

“An approval gate stopped the agent before it sent the customer email.”

a workflow in which a person reviews, guides, or decides part of an automated process

“The medical workflow kept a clinician in the loop for every recommendation.”

an open protocol for connecting AI applications to external data sources, tools, and workflows

“The application used Model Context Protocol to expose its document search tool to the assistant.”