The 4 core agentic AI design patterns, explained in one infographic

goyalshaliniuk · x · 2026-10-24

Shalini Goyal breaks down the four most widely used agentic AI design patterns with flow diagrams and examples:

Self-Reflection: the model critiques and revises its own output autonomously — e.g., drafting a story, spotting plot holes, and rewriting a better version.
ReAct: alternating reasoning and acting loops — the model decides which tool to call, observes results, and iterates until the final answer is accurate (e.g., calling a stock-price API and interpreting it).
Multi-Agent: specialized agents collaborate — researcher gathers data, developer writes code, content writer drafts, project manager keeps deadlines — passing messages and aggregating results.
Planning: break a high-level goal into subtasks, execute with agents, and replan dynamically on failure (e.g., build a website step by step, restyle when CSS fails).

These four patterns form the architectural baseline for building autonomous agent systems.

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