15 · The Workbench

Agent Runtime

The loop that runs an agent

The software that repeatedly calls the model, executes tool results, updates state, and decides when to stop. Chat is one-shot; a runtime is the engine behind multi-step agents.

Concrete example

You send a goal; the runtime plans, calls grep, reads output, edits a file, runs tests, and loops until done or blocked.

Why it matters

Separates “the model” from “the system that uses the model.”