# Workflow or agent, and why the distinction matters

> The clearest public writing on when an agent loop beats a fixed workflow.

- Type: signal
- Published: 2026-08-28
- Topics: agentic-development, ai-news, patterns
- Source: Anthropic Engineering — https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents
- Canonical: https://cmlonder.com/signals/anthropic-effective-agents

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The clearest answer I have found to whether something should be an agent
or a fixed workflow: if the steps are known in advance, write a workflow;
if the decision tree only opens up at runtime, write an agent. Reading
this made me realise that half of my own setups were agents for no good
reason.