← All lessons
Agentic Architecture~12 min
Workflows vs Agents: Choosing the Right Level of Autonomy
Learn Anthropic's workflow/agent distinction and the 'start simple' principle that decides when a single agent or even no agent is the right call.
What you will be able to do
- ✓Define the augmented LLM as the building block of every agentic system (retrieval, tools, memory)
- ✓Distinguish workflows (predefined code paths) from agents (the model dynamically directs its own process)
- ✓Apply the 'find the simplest solution that works, add autonomy only when needed' principle
- ✓Identify which tasks suit a deterministic workflow vs a fully autonomous agent
3 concepts·5 hands-on exercises·3-question check