An AI agent is a system that uses a language model to decide on steps toward a goal and carry them out by calling tools. It acts, not only answers.
What makes something an agent
A chatbot replies to a message. An agent takes a goal, breaks it into steps, calls tools to act, reads the results, and decides what to do next. The loop continues until the goal is met or it needs a person.
Typical parts of an agent:
- A large language model that reasons about the next step.
- A set of tools it may call, such as search, file access, or an API.
- Memory or context about the task.
- Stop conditions and limits.
An example
You tell a coding assistant, "When I tag v2.3, announce it on LinkedIn and Bluesky." The agent reads the changelog, drafts two posts sized for each network, and submits them through a publishing tool.
Why it matters for social accounts
Agents are fast and tireless, and they make mistakes with the same confidence as correct work. A social post is public the moment it goes out. So the question is not whether an agent can write a post, but what it is allowed to do with one.
SocialHandoff gives each agent its own key, scoped by network and permission (draft, schedule, analytics). A new agent is draft-only, and an agent can never approve its own draft. Read about the trust ladder and human in the loop review to see how that works, or set limits in agent keys and permissions.