Lesson 3 of 8 · AI Agents That Plan, Act, and Finish Tasks
In this lesson. Tight loops beat a giant plan that ignores reality.
What you will learn
- Observe
- Replan
- Tight loop
Walkthrough
You will observe tool output and only then continue. Replan on failure. This is the control loop. Fancy planners that never look at the world fail.
Work through the ideas in order. After each point, pause and connect it to a task you already do — a document, a workflow, or a feature you own. The goal of AI Agents That Plan, Act, and Finish Tasks is usable skill, not a pile of notes.
If something is unclear, rewrite it in your own words before you continue. Teaching the step back to yourself is the fastest way to see gaps.
Practice
Specify what observation would cause a replan in your job.
Keep the first attempt small. A finished example you can reuse beats a perfect plan you never run.
Check your understanding
- Can you explain the goal of this lesson in one sentence to a teammate?
- Where would you apply “Observe” in your own work this week?
- What would you change on a second pass of the practice?
Next. Continue to the following lesson when the practice has a real artifact, even a rough one.