Agents are not magic employees—they are stateful workflows with models inside. The engineering is in the boundaries.
Misconception #1: autonomy equals intelligence
Autonomy without guardrails is liability. The best agents know what they cannot do—and ask for help early.
Misconception #2: the model is the product
The product is orchestration: tools, memory policies, retrieval, evaluation, and human review loops.
Misconception #3: you can skip instrumentation
If you cannot trace a decision, you cannot improve it—or defend it.
What “good” looks like
Clear tool contracts, deterministic side effects, structured logs, and measurable quality gates on every release.