Lesson 2: Workflows, agents and the patterns between them
29 min read·13 Oct 2026
Module 5 · Lesson 2 · About 60 minutes · Needs: Lesson 1 (the loop, its limits and stop reasons) and Module 3 (the eight tools)
The situation
It is Tuesday 19 May 2026, week 6, the day before the first unattended run. Marta has read your loop and asks one question: "Mei wants her $79.00 headphones order cancelled. Why does a model need several turns to decide that?"
She has a point. R-1004 (order 8204, SoundPod wireless headphones, still processing) has one right answer: cancel, refund $79.00, email Mei. This lesson traces it through every control pattern and measures two of them on the same requests.