Agents are software with judgement
An AI agent decides which steps to take and which tools to call. That flexibility is what makes agents useful, and it is also why they need deliberate boundaries.
Four design principles
- Least privilege: give each agent only the tools and data it needs.
- Tiered actions: read freely, write carefully, and require approval for consequential actions.
- Full audit: log every tool call, input and decision so behaviour can be reviewed.
- Evaluate failure modes: test what the agent does with ambiguous, malicious and incomplete inputs.
Start narrow
The most successful agent deployments begin with a narrow, well-understood workflow, prove reliability, then expand. Broad autonomy on day one is rarely necessary or wise.