Agentic Architecture Patterns and Autonomy Selection
Select the minimum sufficient architecture for the problem and risk rather than maximizing how agentic the design appears.
A rapid review of the chapter’s existing Quick Read, principles, definitions, lessons, and review material.
The chapter in one pass.
- Purpose: Select the minimum sufficient architecture for the problem and risk rather than maximizing how agentic the design appears.
- Ladder: Deterministic -> prompt assistance -> retrieval-grounded -> bounded single agent -> coordinated specialists -> durable autonomous workflow -> enterprise-integrated system.
- Important: This is a decision ladder, not a maturity score. A lower level can be the correct production architecture.
9. Architecture review exercise
Choose one repository question, one bounded code change, and one cross-system release workflow. For each, document the lowest eligible level, rejected alternatives, required contracts, evaluation, evidence, human authority, failure recovery, cost, promotion criteria, and fallback. A reviewer must be able to challenge the design without knowing a particular vendor stack.
Curriculum maturity is not implementation proof.
This chapter defines architecture or practice. It does not by itself prove a corresponding production implementation.
Review this chapter.
Challenge a claim, boundary, missing failure mode, unclear term, or unsupported evidence statement.
- Claim
- Boundary
- Failure
- Evidence