AI Agent anatomy -- my mental model

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AI agents seem to be everywhere these days, but I’ve found fairly little discussion about the mental models that help us build agents. This post discusses the mental model I use to think about agentic systems, and how this model allows me to think critically about agentic systems.

Agent Anatomy
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The first real definition I heard for an Agent came from Simon Willison:

Agents on Marc Dougherty

AI Agent anatomy -- my mental model

Agent Anatomy #

Agent Anatomy
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