Five Core Forms of AI Agent in YC's Eyes
The article outlines five core architectural patterns for effective AI Agents, emerging from tools like Codex and Claude, that move beyond simple prompts towards reusable, process-based capabilities.
1. **Skills**: Reusable, parameterized workflows that function like method calls, allowing a single process (e.g., "/investigate") to handle various tasks based on input parameters.
2. **Thin Harness**: A lightweight execution framework (~200 lines) that manages the AI model's "hands and feet"—handling loops, file I/O, and context—without becoming bloated.
3. **Resolvers**: Routing tables that map tasks to specific Skills, preventing "context corruption" when managing dozens of Skills and ensuring outputs go to the correct locations.
4. **Latent vs. Deterministic Layer**: A critical separation where LLMs handle judgment, synthesis, and pattern recognition, while deterministic code handles tasks requiring precision, consistency, and low cost (like calculations).
5. **Memory**: A persistent, accumulating knowledge base (e.g., a markdown folder) with a "current trusted conclusion" section and an append-only timeline, enabling the system to learn and retain context over time.
Together, these patterns create a "process power"—a durable competitive advantage. Unlike one-off prompt-based applications whose value quickly commoditizes, a well-designed AI Agent system encodes experience into reusable, parameterized workflows, offloads stable rules to code, and continuously learns through memory. This creates a structured, hard-to-replicate capability that can provide sustained value for individuals or businesses, such as an accountant automating client reviews while preserving privacy and accumulating expertise.
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