12-Factor Agents: Principles for Building Reliable LLM Applications

This article explores the principles for building reliable, scalable, and maintainable LLM-powered software—the 12-Factor Agents. The author argues that existing agent frameworks fall short in production, with many so-called "AI Agents" being mostly deterministic code sprinkled with LLM steps. The author proposes principles for building more robust agents, emphasizing a modular approach of incorporating small, modular agent concepts into existing products, avoiding inefficient greenfield rewrites. This is a valuable read for engineers and entrepreneurs focused on AI application development.