Autonomous Agents

Autonomous agents are AI systems that can independently decompose goals, plan actions, execute tools, and self-correct without constant human guidance. The challenge isn't making them capable - it's making them reliable. Every extra decision multiplies failure probability.

This skill covers agent loops (ReAct, Plan-Execute), goal decomposition, reflection patterns, and production reliability. Key insight: compounding error rates kill autonomous agents. A 95% success rate per step drops to 60% by step 10. Build for reliability first, autonomy second.

2025 lesson: The winners are constrained, domain-specific agents with clear boundaries, not "autonomous everything." Treat AI outputs as proposals, not truth.

Detailed Guide

Read [the detailed guide](references/detailed-guide.md) before executing this skill. It retains the complete procedure and reference material. Treat its safety, prerequisites, and validation requirements as mandatory. For focused work, load the relevant sections; for end-to-end work, read the guide completely.

Track context usage

class ContextManager: def init(self, maxtokens=100000): self.maxtokens = max_tokens self.messages = []

def add(self, message): self.messages.append(message) self.maybe_compact()

def maybecompact(self): if self.tokencount() > self.max_tokens * 0.8: self.compact()

def compact(self): # Always keep: system prompt system = self.messages[0]

# Always keep: last N messages recent = self.messages[-10:]

# Summarize: everything else middle = self.messages[1:-10] if middle: summary = summarize_messages(middle) self.messages = [system, summary] + recent

When to Use

• User mentions or implies: autonomous agent
• User mentions or implies: autogpt
• User mentions or implies: babyagi
• User mentions or implies: self-prompting
• User mentions or implies: goal decomposition
• User mentions or implies: react pattern
• User mentions or implies: agent loop
• User mentions or implies: self-correcting agent
• User mentions or implies: reflection agent
• User mentions or implies: langgraph
• User mentions or implies: agentic ai
• User mentions or implies: agent planning

Example

User request:

Use @autonomous-agents for this task: Autonomous agents are AI systems that can independently decompose goals, plan actions, execute tools, and self-correct without constant human guidance.

Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
• Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
• Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.