Agent Design Best Practices

1. Single Responsibility

Each agent should have one clear purpose.

# Good: Specialized agents
opensin agent create researcher --model gpt-4
opensin agent create writer --model gpt-4
opensin agent create reviewer --model gpt-4

# Bad: One agent doing everything
opensin agent create generalist --model gpt-4

2. Use Appropriate Models

Match model capability to task complexity.

Task	Recommended Model
Simple classification	gpt-3.5-turbo
Content generation	gpt-4
Complex reasoning	gpt-4
Code generation	gpt-4

3. Optimize System Prompts

Be specific and provide clear instructions.

# Good: Specific system prompt
opensin agent update researcher \
  --system-prompt "You are an expert researcher specializing in AI trends. Provide detailed, well-sourced reports with citations."

# Bad: Vague system prompt
opensin agent update researcher \
  --system-prompt "You are a helpful assistant."

4. Use Tools Wisely

Only enable tools that the agent needs.

# Good: Minimal tool set
opensin agent create researcher \
  --tools web_search,summarizer

# Bad: Too many tools
opensin agent create researcher \
  --tools web_search,summarizer,code_interpreter,file_read,file_write,web_fetch,bash

5. Monitor and Optimize

Track agent performance and costs.

# Check agent metrics
opensin agent metrics researcher

# View agent logs
opensin agent logs researcher

# Check costs
opensin cost --agent researcher

Next Steps

• Security Best Practices
• Performance Best Practices