The Reasoning Core
System prompts, skill selection logic, chain-of-thought reasoning, and termination conditions.
Chain-of-Thought for Multi-Step Tasks
Explicit step-by-step reasoning (think, plan, act) dramatically reduces errors when agents must chain multiple tool calls to complete complex tasks.
Skill Selection Reasoning
The LLM’s ability to choose the right tool for each step depends on how well tool descriptions match user intent, and description quality is the single biggest lever for selection accuracy.
System Prompt as Agent DNA
The system prompt is the single most influential piece of code in an AI agent, defining its identity, capabilities, constraints, and behavior in every interaction.
When to Stop
An agent without well-defined termination conditions will loop forever, burning money and producing garbage — knowing when to stop is as important as knowing what to do.