An AI that carries out a task in several steps on its own, with fixed instructions and the access you give it.
An agent does what you tell it. It does not tell the difference by itself between a folder of texts for the public and a customer list next to it, so you decide what it may see and touch. Its results are drafts that you approve. You set up your first agent as a project in Claude, with project instructions and project knowledge, and check it with three test cases before it works for real.
Example from Module 4
The trigger is the incoming email, the agent prepares, I approve.
Module 4: “Your first agent as a project”. In the Werkbank course room, with sign-in.
Related terms
- WorkflowA sequence of steps that repeats, with a trigger for every step.
- TriggerWhat starts a step in a workflow: a person, a schedule or an event.
- EncapsulationYou decide what an agent may see and touch, and what it may not.
- Project instructionsThe part of a Claude project that tells Claude how to work and that applies in every chat of the project.