acting

Definition

The half of an agent loop that touches the outside world — issuing a tool call, running a command, clicking — as opposed to reasoning internally. Acting is the only way new information enters the loop, which is why it fixes errors that deliberation alone cannot. It also carries the risk: thoughts are free to be wrong, actions have consequences.

Explainers using this term

• Distilling Agents — How to Compress a Long TrajectoryReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models
• Build Your Own Agent Loop — The Minimal Shape of Tool CallingReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models
• LLM Agents from Scratch — Designing the Tool-Use LoopReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models