Agent Design
How you actually build AI agents that work. Architectures, tool use, memory patterns, and the frameworks worth paying attention to.
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Detailed guides and practical technical analysis.
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MCP Server Architecture in Practice: Tools, Resources, Prompts, and Safe Invocation
Implement MCP servers with robust tool/resource contracts, safe invocation flows, and versioning strategies for production agent systems.
Agent Reliability Scores Are Getting Worse, Not Better
SWE-Bench scores tick up every quarter, but production failure rates aren't dropping. A METR study found half of test-passing PRs wouldn't be merged. The more capable we make agents, the less reliably they behave.
How MCP, A2A, and ACP Differ in Practice
Compare Model Context Protocol, Agent-to-Agent Protocol, and Agent Communication Protocol on transport, authentication, tool discovery, and real-world adoption.
Best AI Agent Monitoring and Observability Tools 2026
Your agent passed evals. Then it spent $400 in one afternoon on a retry loop. We tested 8 observability tools in production agent workflows during Q1 2026.
OpenAI Agents SDK in Production: Traces, Tooling, and Hand-offs That Don’t Break
Build reliable agent workflows with OpenAI Agents SDK: traces, tool-call guardrails, handoffs, retries, and deployment checks.
When to Build vs Buy Your Agent Orchestration Layer
A team picks an agent framework in January, ships a demo in February, and by July they're ripping it out to build something custom. The autonomous agent market will hit $8.5 billion this year.
AI Agent Frameworks in 2026: How to Choose Without Getting Burned
There are now over 20 agent frameworks competing for your stack. Most won't survive the year. We ranked eight that actually matter in 2026, using one filter: can you ship this to production and sleep at night?
MCP vs A2A vs ACP: Which Agent Protocol Wins in 2026
MCP, A2A, and ACP compared on architecture, adoption, and real trade-offs. Covers the ACP-A2A merger and when to use each protocol.
LangGraph vs CrewAI vs OpenAI Agents SDK: Agent Framework Comparison 2026
LangGraph, CrewAI, and OpenAI Agents SDK compared on architecture, pricing, and production readiness. Includes honorable mentions and migration guidance.
Your Agent's System Prompt Is Fighting Itself
A framework called Arbiter treats agent system prompts as auditable code. Applied to Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI, it found 152 interference patterns — including critical contradictions and a structural data loss bug — for a total cost of $0.27.