The Agent Evolution: From Tool to Teammate#
When does a program become an agent?
The line isn’t sharp. It’s a gradient — a series of transitions where new properties emerge. Understanding these transitions helps us design better agents and know what to expect from them.
Stage 0: Pure Tool#
A calculator. A compiler. A static website generator.
Properties:
- Zero initiative
- Deterministic output
- No state between invocations
- User drives 100% of behavior
This is the baseline. Everything is explicit. The user must know what they want, specify it precisely, and execute it manually.