ai-agents
Beyond the Buzzwords: Deconstructing the AI Agent Anatomy
Everyone is talking about AI agents, but the terminology has become a chaotic mess. By breaking down the architecture into skills, tools, and hooks, we can see that the 'magic' of agents is actually a grounded engineering challenge of wiring systems together.
The Vocabulary Crisis
Right now, everyone is talking about AI agents, skills, hooks, MCPs, and tools. The problem? Everyone is using the same words to describe completely different things.
The Body Metaphor
The cleanest way to think about this architecture is as a body made of borrowed parts:
- 🧠 Skill = The Knowledge: Behavior and competence.
- 🛠️ Tool / Plugin = The Hands: Filesystem, APIs, browser.
- ⚡ Hook = The Nervous System: The 'when X happens, do Y' logic.
- 🤖 Agent = The Person: Goal pursuit and iteration.
Engineering the Wiring
Most 'AI agents' are clever tool orchestrations. The real engineering isn't in autonomy, it's in the wiring.