Perception and Action › Glossary

Action: Any operation the agent performs that changes its environment, such as generating a response, calling a tool, or updating memory. Actions are the agent's way of affecting the world around it.

Perception: The process by which the agent receives and interprets information from its environment. This includes reading user input, receiving tool outputs, and accessing stored memory.

Perception-Action Cycle: The continuous loop where the agent perceives information from its environment, decides what to do, takes action, and then perceives the results of that action. This cycle repeats throughout the agent's operation.

Partial Observability: The limitation that an agent cannot perceive everything in its environment at once. The agent only knows about what it explicitly checks or queries, not everything that exists.

Action Constraint: A limitation on what actions an agent can take, whether due to lack of tools, insufficient permissions, or environmental restrictions. Constraints help keep agents operating within safe boundaries.