What Is an Agent?
Understand what an Iron Gorilla agent is, what it should own, and where its boundaries should be.
An agent is a bounded software worker that can reason about inputs, call approved tools, and move a business task toward an outcome inside Iron Gorilla.
An agent is not a general-purpose employee replacement. It should have a clear purpose, a small operating surface, and a defined way to hand work back to people when confidence is low or risk is high.
A useful definition
An agent in Iron Gorilla combines:
- a clear business goal,
- an approved trigger,
- a sequence of durable steps,
- access to a limited set of tools and data,
- and a predictable outcome or escalation path.
When to use an agent
Use an agent when the task benefits from judgment, classification, enrichment, drafting, or multi-step coordination across systems.
Good fits include:
- triaging inbound work,
- enriching records before a decision,
- preparing a recommended action for review,
- or executing a narrow workflow with clear rules and safeguards.
When not to use an agent
Do not use an agent when:
- a deterministic rule or normal automation is enough,
- the job needs broad unrestricted access,
- the desired outcome is too vague to evaluate,
- or the task has no acceptable fallback when the model is uncertain.
The boundary that matters
The most important design decision is what the agent is allowed to decide on its own.
Keep that boundary tight. An agent can propose, classify, summarize, enrich, or prepare. It should only perform high-impact side effects directly when the trigger, tools, checks, and escalation path make that safe.