Module 3 Wrap-up: Designing Complex Flows

You have mastered the five core patterns of agentic AI. You know that ReAct is for simple turns, Planner-Executor is for deep work, Supervisors are for teams, Critics are for quality, and HITL is for safety.

Now, let’s bring them together in a design exercise.

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Hands-on Exercise: The Competitive Intelligence Rig

The Goal: Build a system that monitors a competitor's website for price changes, analyzes the impact on our profit margins, and drafts a Slack message for the CEO—but waits for the Marketing Manager's approval.

1. Identify the Patterns Needed

1. Planner–Executor: To break down the "Browse -> Analyze -> Draft" steps.
2. Critic: To ensure the analysis math is correct.
3. Human-in-the-Loop: For final approval before sending to the CEO.

2. The Architecture Diagram

graph TD
    Start[User Trigger] --> Planner[Planner Agent]
    Planner --> E1[Executor 1: Scrape Website]
    E1 --> E2[Executor 2: Run Margin Analysis]
    E2 --> Critic[Math Critic Agent]
    Critic -- Fail --> E2
    Critic -- Pass --> E3[Executor 3: Draft Slack Message]
    E3 --> HITL[Human Approval Node]
    HITL -- Approved --> Send[Slack API]
    HITL -- Rejected --> E3

3. The Logic (Conceptual Python)

def competitive_intel_pipeline(competitor_url):
    # Phase 1: Planning
    plan = planner.generate_plan(f"Analyze pricing for {competitor_url}")
    
    # Phase 2: Execution & Quality
    results = []
    for step in plan:
        result = executor.run(step)
        
        # Phase 3: Qualitative check
        review = critic.audit(result)
        if review == "BAD":
            result = executor.run_retry(step, feedback=review)
            
        results.append(result)
        
    # Phase 4: Human-in-the-loop
    final_draft = results[-1]
    if request_human_approval(final_draft):
        send_to_slack(final_draft)

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Module 3 Summary

• Design Patterns are the templates for intelligence.
• The Planner pattern prevents "Drift" in long-running tasks.
• Supervisors allow for specialized experts to collaborate.
• Critics and Validators are the only way to reach production-level reliability.
• HITL is the mandatory bridge between autonomous AI and business responsibility.

Coming Up Next...

In Module 4, we start using the industry-standard framework: LangChain. We will learn how to turn these conceptual patterns into concrete Python code.

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Module 3 Checklist

• I can describe the difference between ReAct and Planner-Executor.
• I understand why a "Critic" agent should have a different system prompt.
• I have identified 3 "Breakpoints" in my own business where HITL is needed.
• I can build a multi-step architecture diagram for a complex task.
• I understand the cost implications of running multi-agent loops.