Agent Architecture & Functionality - The Langchain deep research agent is highly configurable and open source, allowing for customization to specific use cases [1] - The agent operates in three main phases: scoping the problem, research, and report writing [3] - The research phase utilizes a supervisor to delegate tasks to sub-agents for in-depth research on specific subtopics [4] - Sub-agents use a tool calling loop, which can be configured with default or custom tools (like MCP servers) for searching flights, hotels, etc [17][18] - A compression step is used by sub-agents to synthesize research findings into comprehensive mini-reports before returning to the supervisor, mitigating context window overload [21][23] - The supervisor analyzes findings from sub-agents to either complete research or continue with follow-up questions [25] - Final report generation is done in a single shot using all condensed research findings [5][27] Implementation & Configuration - The agent is built on Langraph and can be run locally by cloning the Open Deep Research repository [29] - Configuration involves setting API keys for models (default OpenAI) and search tools (default Tavily) [30] - Langraph Studio can be used for iterating and testing the agent with different configurations [32] - The agent is highly configurable, allowing users to choose between default or model provider native search tools, connect to MCP servers, and select models for different steps [33][34] Application & Output - The agent can be used for complex research tasks, such as planning a trip, by iteratively calling tools and searching the web [2] - The agent provides a final report with an overview, flight options, transportation options, accommodation options with booking links, a sample itinerary, and a list of sources [36] - Open Agent Platform provides a UI to configure and try out the research agent without cloning the code [37]

Context Engineering Overview - Context engineering is defined as the art and science of filling the context window with the right information at each step of an agent's trajectory [2][4] - The industry categorizes context engineering strategies into writing context, selecting context, compressing context, and isolating context [2][12] - Context engineering is critical for building agents because they typically handle longer contexts [10] Context Writing and Selection - Writing context involves saving information outside the context window, such as using scratch pads for note-taking or memory for retaining information across sessions [13][16][17] - Selecting context means pulling relevant context into the context window, including instructions, facts, and tools [12][19][20] - Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is used to augment the knowledge base of LLMs, with code agents being a large-scale application [27] Context Compression and Isolation - Compressing context involves retaining only the most relevant tokens, often through summarization or trimming [12][30] - Isolating context involves splitting up context to help an agent perform a task, with multi-agent systems being a primary example [12][35] - Sandboxing can isolate token-heavy objects from the LLM context window [39] Langraph Support for Context Engineering - Langraph, a low-level orchestration framework, supports context engineering through features like state objects for scratchpads and built-in long-term memory [44][45][48] - Langraph facilitates context selection from state or long-term memory and offers utilities for summarizing and trimming message history [50][53] - Langraph supports context isolation through multi-agent implementations and integration with sandboxes [55][56]

Langsmith Platform Overview - Langsmith is an observability and evaluation platform for AI applications, focusing on tracing application behavior [1] - The platform uses tracing projects to collect logs associated with applications, with each project corresponding to an application [2] - Langsmith is framework agnostic, designed to monitor AI applications regardless of the underlying build [5] Tracing and Monitoring AI Applications - Tracing is enabled by importing environment variables, including Langmouth tracing, Langmith endpoint, and API key [6] - The traceable decorator is added to functions to enable tracing within the application [8] - Langsmith provides a detailed breakdown of each step within the application, known as the run tree, showing inputs, outputs, and telemetry [12][14] - Telemetry includes token cost and latency of each step, visualized through a waterfall view to identify latency sources [14][15] Integration with Langchain and Langraph - Langchain and Langraph, Langchain's open-source libraries, work out of the box with Langsmith, simplifying tracing setup [17] - When using Langraph or Langchain, the traceable decorator is not required, streamlining the tracing process [17]

Agentic Platform Engineering Implementation - Outshift by Cisco is redefining platform engineering with agentic platform engineering, aiming to automate workflows and allow platform engineers to focus on high-value work [1][2] - The company built Jarvis, a genai-powered multi-agentic system, to automate tasks and improve efficiency [2] - Langraph, combined with Langsmith's observability tools, enables debugging agentic applications and improving reasoning capabilities at scale [6] Efficiency Improvement - Implementing Jarvis allows developers to self-service through genai-powered automation, eliminating manual toil [4] - CI/CD pipeline setup time reduced from a week to less than an hour [7] - Resource provisioning time (e.g., S3 buckets, EC2 instances, access keys) reduced from half a day to nearly instantaneous [7] - The company has eliminated unnecessary back and forth between developers and SREs [7] Workflow Transformation - The company shifted from traditional automation to agentic reasoning-based workflows by adopting Langraph [5] - Developers interact with Jarvis for platform-related questions and configurations, retrieving information autonomously [8] - The new system allows the company to handle a higher volume of requests with the same team while reducing burnout [8] Technology Evaluation - Langraph's tight integration with Langsmith, especially for debugging and evaluations, is a significant advantage [9] - The company found Langraph to be superior compared to other agentic solutions or custom-built alternatives [9]