Strength
Fast, observable, and naturally aligned with queues, streams, tickets, and business events.
AI Agent Architecture
Event-driven vs goal-driven agents
The trigger model determines how an agent wakes up, scopes work, and stops. Event-driven agents react to bounded changes; goal-driven agents pursue an outcome across multiple decisions.
Answer in brief
Prefer event-driven agents for predictable, high-volume operations with clear triggers. Prefer goal-driven agents when the path cannot be fully specified in advance. Use a hybrid when events create or update goals but policy controls the execution boundary.
Event-driven agents
Use these dimensions to make the architecture decision explicit and testable.
Risk
A storm of duplicate or low-quality events can create repeated actions.
Best fit
Classification, routing, alert enrichment, document intake, and bounded remediation.
Goal-driven agents
Use these dimensions to make the architecture decision explicit and testable.
Strength
Can decompose an objective, gather evidence, choose tools, and adapt the plan.
Risk
Scope can drift unless goals, budgets, and termination criteria are explicit.
Best fit
Research, investigation, planning, complex case resolution, and cross-system coordination.
Hybrid architecture
Use these dimensions to make the architecture decision explicit and testable.
Pattern
An event creates a goal record. A planner proposes work, an orchestrator applies policy, and workers execute approved steps.
State
Keep event history, current goal, plan version, tool evidence, and approval state in separate fields.
Control
Use idempotency keys, deduplication, rate limits, and human approval for sensitive actions.
Production checklist
Use this as a design-review gate before release.
- Name the trigger or goal in one sentence.
- Define idempotency and duplicate handling.
- Set a maximum work budget.
- Separate planning from execution permissions.
- Persist state outside the model context.
- Measure false triggers, goal completion, and escalation rate.
Continue learning
Place this pattern inside a broader agent architecture and operating model.
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