In short
Software that reads its instructions, looks at the situation, takes actions with real tools, and reports back. Runs on a schedule or on a trigger, without being prompted.
An agent is not a chat window. It is a program that perceives (reads the inbox, the board, the file), decides (against its instructions), acts (writes, publishes, updates, calls a tool), and learns from what happened (updates its notes). Then it stops until the next run.
The difference from a chatbot is that nobody has to be there. An agent runs at 10:15 because the schedule says so, does its job, and either stays silent or sends one line. The difference from a flowchart is that it takes instructions in plain language and handles the cases the flowchart never anticipated.
At PostScarcity AI an agent is custom software written for one company, governed by instruction files that company owns, operated on a harness that can be swapped. It is a colleague with a job description, not a feature.
Example
What it looks like.
One agent's week: scan the inbox for the attorney's drafts each morning; turn each draft into a published post by 10:15; trim old featured posts every two weeks; send the monthly search report on the first. Silent unless something fails.Related
Read next.
- instruction fileThe Markdown file that tells an agent who it is, what it owns, and what it may never do. The agent's job description, readable by the agent.Read the definition
- harnessThe software that runs an agent: loads the instructions, connects the tools, keeps the schedule, delivers messages. Replaceable. The instructions are not.Read the definition
- connectorA link between an agent and a real system: email, calendar, files, the CRM, the site. Connecting your people to their systems is one of the first things we do in month one.Read the definition
- cronA schedule. The thing that runs an agent at 10:15 every morning whether anyone remembers or not.Read the definition