Field log / Technology
Building useful agentic systems
What actually matters when you move an agent from a demo into something people rely on every day.
Placeholder post — replace with your own writing. Kept here so you can see how an article renders.
Most agent demos look impressive for about ninety seconds. The interesting work starts when the same system has to run on Tuesday, with messy inputs, and nobody watching.
Start from the job, not the model
Write down the task a capable person would do, step by step. The steps that need judgment are where the model earns its keep. The rest is usually plain software.
Make failure visible
- Log every tool call and its result.
- Prefer small, checkable steps over one big leap.
- Give the system a way to say “I’m not sure.”
const result = await agent.run(task, { maxSteps: 12, onStep: log });Field note
The best systems I’ve seen are boring in the right places.