Deterministic Agent Workflows vs. Autonomous Loops

Why Unbounded Autonomous Loops Burn Tokens and Fail SLA Targets

Giving an LLM 25 tools and an open-ended while loop is a recipe for 40-second latencies and unpredictable bills. Break complex jobs into explicit DAG steps with typed handoffs.

export async function runTriagedWorkflow(input: string) {
  const intent = input.includes("course") ? "course_lookup" : "general_qa";
  return { intent, routedAt: new Date().toISOString() };
}

Production Architecture Takeaway

Cap tool-calling loops to a strict maximum step count and use deterministic routing whenever the control flow is known upfront.