autonomous

A guide to autonomous agents explains software agents that independently plan tasks, take actions, observe results, and adjust their approach over time.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to understand autonomous-agent behavior, including planning, acting, observing the environment, reflecting, continuing, adjusting, and finishing.
Why use it?
It clarifies the repeating agent loop and the need for safeguards when software operates with little direct supervision.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/thibautmelen/agentic-ai-systems/autonomous
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ThibautMelen/agentic-ai-systems
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,881 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan C 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.01881
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00941
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00376
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00188

Measured yesterday against content hash edc0ce356449, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade C, and why

autonomous scanned grade C with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories โ€” prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency โ€” measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Hidden instructionshighPrompt injection

Directives inside HTML comments, invisible characters or bidirectional overrides are read by the model and not by the person reviewing the file.

GOAL["๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ“ฅ Goal"]:::user --> PLAN["๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ“‹ Plan"]:::main PLAN --> ACT["๐Ÿ”โšก Act"]:::state ACT --> ENV["๐ŸŒ Environment"]:::data ENV --> OBSERVE["๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ‘€ Observe"]:::data OBSERVE --> REFLECT{"๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ’ญ Reflect"}:::wizard REFLECT --
agents/autonomous.md ยท 223 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing โ€” 223 lines โ€” stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

๐Ÿ  Home โ€บ Autonomous โ€บ ๐Ÿ” Autonomous Agent

โ† Autonomous โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ—โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” Multi-Window Context โ†’


๐Ÿ” Autonomous Agent

TL;DR: Long-running agents that independently plan, execute, and adapt based on environment feedback. Maximum autonomy, but requires guardrails.


Diagram

%%{init: {'theme': 'base', 'themeVariables': {'lineColor': '#64748b'}}}%%
flowchart TB
    classDef user fill:#6366f1,stroke:#4f46e5,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
    classDef data fill:#06b6d4,stroke:#0891b2,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
    classDef main fill:#8b5cf6,stroke:#7c3aed,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
    classDef state fill:#10b981,stroke:#059669,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
    classDef wizard fill:#14b8a6,stroke:#0d9488,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff

    GOAL["๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ“ฅ Goal"]:::user --> PLAN["๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ“‹ Plan"]:::main
    PLAN --> ACT["๐Ÿ”โšก Act"]:::state
    ACT --> ENV["๐ŸŒ Environment"]:::data
    ENV --> OBSERVE["๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ‘€ Observe"]:::data
    OBSERVE --> REFLECT{"๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ’ญ Reflect"}:::wizard

    REFLECT -->|"๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ”„ Adjust"| PLAN
    REFLECT -->|"๐Ÿ”โ–ถ๏ธ Continue"| ACT
    REFLECT -->|"๐Ÿ”โœ… Done"| DONE["๐Ÿ’โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ“ค Result"]:::user

The Agent Loop

%%{init: {'theme': 'base', 'themeVariables': {'lineColor': '#64748b'}}}%%
stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Planning: ๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ“ฅ Receive goal
    Planning --> Executing: ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ“‹ Create plan
    Executing --> Observing: ๐Ÿ”โšก Take action
    Observing --> Reflecting: ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ‘€ Get feedback
    Reflecting --> Planning: ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ”„ Adjust
    Reflecting --> Executing: ๐Ÿ”โ–ถ๏ธ Continue
    Reflecting --> [*]: ๐Ÿ’โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ“ค Goal achieved

Key Insight

โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚  ๐Ÿ” AUTONOMOUS AGENT: What Makes It Different                               โ”‚
โ”œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ค
โ”‚                                                                             โ”‚
โ”‚  Agents are emerging in production as LLMs mature in key capabilities:      โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                             โ”‚
โ”‚  โœ… Understanding complex inputs                                            โ”‚
โ”‚  โœ… Engaging in reasoning and planning                                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โœ… Using tools reliably                                                    โ”‚
โ”‚  โœ… Recovering from errors                                                  โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                             โ”‚
โ”‚  During execution, it's CRUCIAL for agents to gain "ground truth"           โ”‚
โ”‚  from the environment at each step (tool results, code execution)           โ”‚
โ”‚  to assess their progress.                                                  โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                             โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜

Read the full file on GitHub ยท 223 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen ยท 223 lines ยท 0 tokens per session scan C edc0ce356449

Subscribe to this mod's changes

autonomous is an agent published in the GitHub repository ThibautMelen/agentic-ai-systems (301 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 1,881 tokens. A static security scan graded it C with 1 finding (hidden instructions). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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