Notation
Every pattern is drawn with the same seven shapes and two lines. Work enters at the top and moves down.
Shapes
- Person
- A human who asks, reviews or approves.
- Model call
- One call to a model.
- Agent
- A model that uses tools in a loop until it is done.
- Tool
- Something outside the model that it can call or act on.
- Code
- A fixed step that runs the same way every time.
- Context
- Text a model reads or writes: a plan, a history, a summary.
- Start or end
- What goes in, or what comes out.
Lines
- Always
- This step happens every time.
- Sometimes
- This step happens only when it is needed or chosen.
A shape’s name is a word its sources use. The few words on a line are ours.