Agentic Workflows and Multi-Step AI Systems

Agents Need Boundaries

Agentic systems let AI plan and execute multiple steps toward a goal. That flexibility can be powerful, but it also increases the risk of tool misuse, runaway loops, bad assumptions, and hard-to-debug behavior.

Engineering Controls

• Define the goal, allowed tools, stopping conditions, and maximum step count.
• Separate planning, execution, observation, and final response phases.
• Persist state so the workflow can be inspected, resumed, or rolled back.
• Add approval gates before external side effects or irreversible actions.
• Evaluate task completion, tool selection, latency, cost, and failure modes.

Prefer Narrow Agents First

Production agents are easier to trust when they operate in a narrow workflow with explicit permissions, visible state, and clear success criteria.