Autonomy terms
How much an agent does on its own โ from assistant to fully autonomous.
- ๐งญAutonomyAgent
A software system powered by an LLM that perceives its environment, plans actions, and executes them โ usually across multiple steps and tools.
- ๐งญAutonomyAgentic AI
AI systems that act with autonomy โ perceiving their environment, planning multi-step actions, calling tools, and iterating toward a goal โ as opposed to single-turn generative AI that only responds to prompts.
- ๐งญAutonomyAgentic workflow
A workflow where an AI agent plans, executes, and adapts a multi-step process โ autonomously calling tools, reading data, and looping until the goal is met.
- ๐งญAutonomyAI handoff
The transition pattern where an AI agent transfers control of a task to a human or to another agent โ preserving context, state, and prior actions so the receiver can continue seamlessly.
- ๐งญAutonomyAI pair programming
A workflow where an engineer codes alongside an AI assistant that suggests, completes, and reviews code in real time โ distinct from autonomous coding agents that ship PRs without human intervention.
- ๐งญAutonomyAutonomous agent
An agent that plans, executes, and finishes a multi-step task without asking for human approval between steps.
- ๐งญAutonomyCopilot
An AI tool that suggests changes inline and waits for the user to accept โ the human stays in the driver's seat.
- ๐งญAutonomyHierarchical agent
A multi-agent architecture where a "manager" or "planner" agent delegates sub-tasks to specialist worker agents โ the most common multi-agent pattern in 2026 production systems.
- ๐งญAutonomyHuman in the loop
A workflow pattern where the agent pauses for human approval at one or more checkpoints before continuing.
- ๐งญAutonomySemi-autonomous agent
An agent that plans and executes most steps unsupervised but pauses for approval before anything irreversible.
- ๐งญAutonomySupervisor agent
In hierarchical multi-agent systems, the top-level agent that delegates work to specialist sub-agents, monitors progress, handles failures, and aggregates results.
- ๐งญAutonomySwarm intelligence
A multi-agent pattern where many similar agents collaborate without a central supervisor โ inspired by ant colonies and bee swarms, used for parallel exploration and consensus.