# AI agent

Concept · [Building with AI](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/ai)

Also called: agent, agents, agentic, autonomous agent

An AI tool that does more than answer a question. Given a goal, it takes a series of steps on its own, such as looking things up, using other software and checking its own results. Builders often describe it as a model that uses tools in a loop.

**For example:** You ask an AI agent to find three [venues](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/event-venue) for an event. It searches, compares prices, [checks](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/automated-check) which dates are open and returns a shortlist.

## Connects to (26)

- [LLM](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/llm): Large language model.
- [Coding agent](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/coding-agent): An AI agent that writes and changes code.
- [Prompt](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/prompt): The instructions or question you give an AI tool in everyday words.
- [Agent loop](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/agent-loop): The repeating cycle that makes an AI agent work: the model decides on a step, calls a tool, reads the result and decides the next step…
- [Subagent](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/subagent): A second agent that the main agent starts to handle one piece of a job in its own separate session.
- [Harness](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/harness): The software wrapped around an AI model that turns it into a working agent.
- [AI](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/terms/ai): Artificial intelligence.
- [Tool use](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/tool-use): A way for a model to ask the software around it to run a defined action, such as a search or a database lookup, and send back the result.
- [MCP](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/terms/mcp): Model Context Protocol.
- [Prompt injection](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/prompt-injection): A security weakness in AI products.
- [OklahomAI Developers Tulsa](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/oklahomai-developers-tulsa): A Tulsa meetup about AI for developers, AI enthusiasts and tech professionals.
- [Session](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/session): One stretch of work with an AI agent, from a blank start until it is cleared, closed or compacted.
- [Turn](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/turn): One round of a conversation with an agent: you send a message, and the agent works until it hands control back to you.
- [Agent environment](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/agent-environment): Everything outside the agent's own software that it can look at or change: your files, terminal, browser, databases and connected services.
- [Tool result](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/tool-result): What comes back to the model after it uses a tool: a file's contents, the output of a command, a search result or an error.
- [Software factory](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/software-factory): A way of organizing work where events, not people, start agent sessions.
- [Agent skills](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/agent-skills): A packaged set of instructions, sometimes with scripts, that an agent loads when a task calls for it, such as how to write a press release…
- [Agent swarm](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/agent-swarm): Many AI agents working on parts of a larger task at the same time, coordinated by software or by a lead agent.
- [Human in the loop](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/human-in-the-loop): Designing an AI process so a person reviews, approves or corrects the AI's work at key steps instead of letting it act alone.
- [Claude Cowork](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/claude-cowork): Anthropic's name for Claude carrying out multi-step tasks across a person's files and tools, such as organizing folders or assembling a…
- [OpenClaw](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/openclaw): An open-source AI agent that a person runs on their own computer or server.
- [Firecrawl](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/firecrawl): A service that turns web pages into clean text that AI models can use.
- [Observe.AI](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/observe-ai): Software for customer contact centers that uses AI to transcribe and analyze calls and to assist or automate agents.
- [ProductOS](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/productos): An AI platform that takes a product idea through research, a written spec, design, code and deployment, using a set of AI agents that…
- [HeyClicky](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/heyclicky): An AI assistant app for Mac and Windows that sits on the desktop and helps with what is on the screen.
- [Tulsa Salesforce User Group](https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/tulsa-salesforce-user-group): A Salesforce Trailblazer Community Group in Tulsa that holds talks, release-notes reviews and socials for people who use Salesforce.

Map view: https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/ai-agent