How to Build an AI Agent

A viral infographic frames agent-building as an 8-step pipeline — that's a parts list, not an architecture. The actual defining mechanism is a loop: gather context, take action, verify, repeat. Equally important: the workflow-versus-agent decision up-front. A deterministic workflow is often the better choice over an agent — lower cost, predictable behavior, easier to test. This field guide walks through the augmented-LLM pattern, the decision-gate for workflow-vs-agent, the mechanics of context engineering (what goes in, what stays out, what gets compressed), and the most common failure modes of production-grade agents. With concrete code patterns and a decision checklist you can apply to your next use case.