Graph engineering is the new agent pattern: nodes, edges, state, and loops
femke_plantinga · x · 2026-07-29
A concise explainer of why graph engineering is suddenly popular in agent workflows.
- Node: one unit of work, such as a tool call, an agent, or even a loop.
- Edge / route: the path between nodes; a node can branch into multiple routes.
- Conditional edge: a decision point that reads state and chooses the next step, where quality gates and safety checks live.
- State machine: the overall shape of the workflow, with each node representing a possible state.
- Shared state: one object that moves through the graph and gets read/updated by every node.
- Agent loops: the autonomous act-evaluate-repeat loop inside the graph.
The core argument: loops did not disappear; they moved inside graphs. Use loops for autonomy, and graphs around them for control in production systems.
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