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Agent vs Workflow

Autonomous reasoning loops vs deterministic step-by-step pipelines.

An agent reasons about what to do next. A workflow has hardcoded steps. Different reliability, cost, and appropriate use cases.

At a glance

AgentWorkflow
StepsDynamic (agent decides)Fixed (predefined)
ReliabilityVariablePredictable
CostHigher (multiple LLM calls)Lower
DebugHarderEasier

When to pick Agent

Task with dynamic branching, exploration needed.

When to pick Workflow

Known sequence of steps, reliability matters.

My verdict

Most production 'agents' should actually be workflows. Use agents only when the branching is genuinely dynamic.

Further reading