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Glossary (Key Terms)

This glossary standardizes terms used across the map and pattern pages.

If you see a term used differently on a page, treat this page as the source of truth.

What Problem It Solves

Agent systems get confusing fast—not because the patterns are hard, but because teams silently drift on terms:

  • “agent” vs “workflow”
  • “tool calling” vs “function calling”
  • “retrieval loop” vs “agentic RAG”

In a bilingual site, drift is even easier. This page pins down one preferred term + one meaning so the rest of the docs stay coherent.

When to Use

  • You’re reading a pattern page and want a fast definition.
  • You’re writing/editing a page and need consistent terminology (especially EN↔ZH).
  • You’re unsure whether two names are actually the same pattern (often they are).

How It Works (How to Maintain It)

  • Prefer one canonical name per concept.
  • If a synonym is common, mention it once in Notes (don’t create two competing entries).
  • Keep entries short: 1–2 sentences + a pragmatic note.
  • If a term becomes “big enough”, promote it to its own pattern or building block page.

Worked Example (Adding a Term)

When you add a new concept, add:

  • a short definition
  • one pragmatic note (what people confuse it with)
  • 1–3 “See also” references

Example:

| **Tool policy** | Rules for which tools are allowed (and with what args). | Usually allowlist-first; pair with guardrails. |

Failure Modes & Mitigations

  • Synonym soup: enforce one canonical name, list synonyms as notes only.
  • Bilingual drift: treat EN+ZH pages as a pair; update both in the same change.
  • Over-explaining: if an entry needs paragraphs, it probably belongs on a dedicated page.

Core Runtime Terms

Term Meaning (short) Notes
Workflow A fixed (or limited-branch) control flow defined by code/config. Easier to test than an agent loop.
Agent A controller where the next step is decided dynamically by an LLM given the current state. “Agent” here is about control flow, not consciousness.
Agent loop A closed loop: decide → act (tool) → observe → update state → repeat. ReAct is the canonical form.
State Everything the controller can “see”: messages + scratchpad/ledger + relevant memory. Keep it structured when possible.
Action schema A machine-readable format for “what to do next” (tool/final/ask). Prevents brittle text parsing.
Tool calling The agent selects a tool/function, provides args, receives an observation. Also called “function calling”.
Observation Tool output appended back into state. Treat retrieved text as untrusted input.
Budget Hard limits: max steps / tool calls / tokens / time / cost. Stops runaway loops.

Retrieval & Memory

Term Meaning (short) Notes
Retrieval (RAG) Fetch external context (docs) and ground generation on it. Vanilla RAG is often “retrieve once → answer”.
Retrieval loop Iterate: retrieve → read → refine query → retrieve again → stop when enough. A specialized loop for search.
Agentic RAG Retrieval is inside the agent loop: the model decides when/what to retrieve and when to stop. Often adds an evidence ledger for auditability.
Evidence ledger A structured record mapping claims → supporting sources/snippets/doc_ids. Mitigates “citation theater” and enables audits.
Memory Persisted state across steps or sessions (KV, summaries, episodic notes). Used by Reflexion and long-horizon agents.
Episodic memory “Lessons learned” from past runs stored as text or structured notes. Reflexion-style learning without weight updates.

Reliability & Verification

Term Meaning (short) Notes
Maker-Checker Generate → critique → revise loop (sometimes multiple rounds). Also called “reviewer/critic”.
Voting / self-consistency Sample multiple candidates and aggregate (vote/rank/merge). Reduces variance; increases cost.
CoVe (verification chain) Draft claims → verify claims (tools/rules) → fix. Treat verification as a first-class loop.
Retry / backoff Re-attempt failed steps with delays or adjusted params. Combine with budgets + circuit breakers.
Circuit breaker Stop or degrade when repeated failures happen (tool outage, rate limit). Prevents infinite retry storms.
Term Meaning (short) Notes
Plan & Solve First produce an explicit plan; then execute/answer. Helps multi-step reasoning.
Planner–Executor–Replanner (PER) Plan → execute → replan based on feedback/failures/budget. Makes re-planning explicit.
ReWOO “Reasoning without observation”: draft a tool plan first, then execute tools in a batch. Can reduce token churn vs ReAct.
LLM Compiler Compile a plan into a DAG of tool calls, then execute with dependencies. Helps parallelism and repeatability.
LATS Tree search over trajectories; expand/evaluate/backprop to pick better paths. High cost; used for hard problems.

Multi-Agent

Term Meaning (short) Notes
Manager–Worker A coordinator decomposes tasks and delegates to specialist workers. Useful for specialization + parallelism.
Agents-as-Tools Treat each specialist agent as a callable tool behind an orchestrator. Simplifies routing + governance.
Group chat / council Multiple agents discuss/critique; a selector merges or chooses. Can resemble “debate” or “committee”.
Handoff / triage Route the task to the best next agent (or a human) based on signals. Prevents the “one agent for everything” trap.

Governance, Observability, Evaluation

Term Meaning (short) Notes
Policy Rules for allowed tools, parameter bounds, and permissions by route/task. “Allowlist-first” for safety.
Guardrails Input/output/tool tripwires (block, redact, ask approval). Catch prompt injection, unsafe actions, leaks.
HITL Human-in-the-loop approvals for risky actions (writes, money, prod). Must support resume after approval.
Tracing Structured logs of steps, tool calls, decisions, and timing. Enables debugging and evals.
Eval harness A reproducible task suite + scoring + regression reports. Lets you prove improvements over time.

“Human voice” (Docs)

Term Meaning (short) Notes
Template-y writing Copy-paste structure that reads generic and low-signal. Fix by adding concrete failure modes and worked examples.
Banned phrase list Words/phrases you prohibit to reduce AI-ish filler. Enforce at generation or in polish.

References

  • Agentic RAG (overview): https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/agentic-rag
  • Agentic RAG (glossary-style): https://exploreagentic.ai/glossary/agentic-rag/
  • Agentic RAG (public-sector risks): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-insights/ai-insights-agentic-rag-html
  • Reflexion (paper): https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.11366
  • Plan-and-Solve (paper): https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04091
  • ReWOO (paper): https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.18323
  • LATS (paper): https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.04406
  • “Human voice” editing habits (practical): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/copilot-101/humanize-ai-text