Most agents you'll build are variations on a handful of patterns. Knowing which one fits your task saves weeks of "why isn't this working?"
| If the task is… | Use |
|---|---|
| Short, exploratory, needs adaptation | ReAct |
| Long, well-defined, many steps | Plan-execute |
| Has independent parallel subtasks | Multi-agent |
| Any agent going to production | Plus evaluation |
| Stable system prompt, many calls | Plus prompt caching |