/autonomous-agent-patterns

name: autonomous-agent-patterns
description: "Design patterns for building autonomous coding agents, inspired by [Cline](https://github.com/cline/cline) and [OpenAI Codex](https://github.com/openai/codex)."
risk: critical
source: community
date_added: "2026-02-27"

🕹️ Autonomous Agent Patterns

> Design patterns for building autonomous coding agents, inspired by [Cline](https://github.com/cline/cline) and [OpenAI Codex](https://github.com/openai/codex).

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Building autonomous AI agents
• Designing tool/function calling APIs
• Implementing permission and approval systems
• Creating browser automation for agents
• Designing human-in-the-loop workflows

---

1. Core Agent Architecture

1.1 Agent Loop

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     AGENT LOOP                               │
│                                                              │
│  ┌──────────┐    ┌──────────┐    ┌──────────┐              │
│  │  Think   │───▶│  Decide  │───▶│   Act    │              │
│  │ (Reason) │    │ (Plan)   │    │ (Execute)│              │
│  └──────────┘    └──────────┘    └──────────┘              │
│       ▲                               │                     │
│       │         ┌──────────┐          │                     │
│       └─────────│ Observe  │◀─────────┘                     │
│                 │ (Result) │                                │
│                 └──────────┘                                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

class AgentLoop:
    def __init__(self, llm, tools, max_iterations=50):
        self.llm = llm
        self.tools = {t.name: t for t in tools}
        self.max_iterations = max_iterations
        self.history = []

    def run(self, task: str) -> str:
        self.history.append({"role": "user", "content": task})

        for i in range(self.max_iterations):
            # Think: Get LLM response with tool options
            response = self.llm.chat(
                messages=self.history,
                tools=self._format_tools(),
                tool_choice="auto"
            )

            # Decide: Check if agent wants to use a tool
            if response.tool_calls:
                for tool_call in response.tool_calls:
                    # Act: Execute the tool
                    result = self._execute_tool(tool_call)

                    # Observe: Add result to history
                    self.history.append({
                        "role": "tool",
                        "tool_call_id": tool_call.id,
                        "content": str(result)
                    })
            else:
                # No more tool calls = task complete
                return response.content

        return "Max iterations reached"

    def _execute_tool(self, tool_call) -> Any:
        tool = self.tools[tool_call.name]
        args = json.loads(tool_call.arguments)
        return tool.execute(**args)

1.2 Multi-Model Architecture

class MultiModelAgent:
    """
    Use different models for different purposes:
    - Fast model for planning
    - Powerful model for complex reasoning
    - Specialized model for code generation
    """

    def __init__(self):
        self.models = {
            "fast": "gpt-3.5-turbo",      # Quick decisions
            "smart": "gpt-4-turbo",        # Complex reasoning
            "code": "claude-3-sonnet",     # Code generation
        }

    def select_model(self, task_type: str) -> str:
        if task_type == "planning":
            return self.models["fast"]
        elif task_type == "analysis":
            return self.models["smart"]
        elif task_type == "code":
            return self.models["code"]
        return self.models["smart"]

---

2. Tool Design Patterns

2.1 Tool Schema

class Tool:
    """Base class for agent tools"""

    @property
    def schema(self) -> dict:
        """JSON Schema for the tool"""
        return {
            "name": self.name,
            "description": self.description,
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": self._get_parameters(),
                "required": self._get_required()
            }
        }

    def execute(self, **kwargs) -> ToolResult:
        """Execute the tool and return result"""
        raise NotImplementedError

class ReadFileTool(Tool):
    name = "read_file"
    description = "Read the contents of a file from the filesystem"

    def _get_parameters(self):
        return {
            "path": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Absolute path to the file"
            },
            "start_line": {
                "type": "integer",
                "description": "Line to start reading from (1-indexed)"
            },
            "end_line": {
                "type": "integer",
                "description": "Line to stop reading at (inclusive)"
            }
        }

    def _get_required(self):
        return ["path"]

    def execute(self, path: str, start_line: int = None, end_line: int = None) -> ToolResult:
        try:
            with open(path, 'r') as f:
                lines = f.readlines()

            if start_line and end_line:
                lines = lines[start_line-1:end_line]

            return ToolResult(
                success=True,
                output="".join(lines)
            )
        except FileNotFoundError:
            return ToolResult(
                success=False,
                error=f"File not found: {path}"
            )

2.2 Essential Agent Tools

CODING_AGENT_TOOLS = {
    # File operations
    "read_file": "Read file contents",
    "write_file": "Create or overwrite a file",
    "edit_file": "Make targeted edits to a file",
    "list_directory": "List files and folders",
    "search_files": "Search for files by patt